New beginnings, familiar conclusions
by AnonymousAva
Summary: Three petty criminals pull off the ultimate heist – A billionaire's daughter. But they didn't bargain for a shocking decision and they certainly didn't bargain for a feisty hostage. A dramatic version of how four friends and their faithful hound met.
1. Prologue

Author's Note: You know when you have a really bizarre dream? Well this was mine. Truth be told I haven't even thought about Scooby Doo in a while. Sure, it was my favourite show as a kid, growing up in the UK but I'm now a 26 year old woman. Why am I even thinking about such things? I had a really clear memory of this dream and then this idea just wouldn't leave me. I am a writer but not this sort of thing, I'm a football writer (well soccer to most of you) but I had heard about 'Fan Fiction' and read some stuff about the shows I like, and so a quick google brought me here.

I have no idea why I felt compelled to write this but I did, and perhaps someone here may be interested in it. It is most certainly not a light and fluffy tale. I'm using the characters but placing them in a completely different situation, but whilst still retaining their characteristics. This may still be considered controversial but it's something different, more adult rated M mainly for violence and strong language.

An epic story of drama, friendship, romance and revenge. An alternatively more dramatic version of how four friends and their faithful hound came to be.

Best friends Norville Rogers and Frederick Jones have found themselves turning to a life of crime after the death of Rogers' parents and gifted athlete Fred loses his scholarship. They started off small but as the money started to roll in their heists became that much more daring and successful. Fred begins to dream big, fed up of living life in the shadows, and constantly looking over his shoulder, convinced the law will eventually catch up with the pair, he hatches a plan for their most ambitious crime yet. If they pull this off, they will have more than enough cash to leave this life behind for good, they could leave this small town behind, move to a big city where no one would even care who they were or how they got their riches, they could start afresh, new identities, new life. It seemed the perfect solution, they were good at crime, but neither friend had the desire to be a criminal their whole lives, they kept telling themselves it was just the means to an end. Norville worked in the kitchens, Fred was a mechanic, it seemed for now they were above suspicion, but Fred knew it was only a matter of time before somebody started to put the pieces together, no matter how careful they were. Fred wanted out, he wanted his life back and he knew exactly how they were going to do it.

As good as criminals as Fred and Norville were, to pull off something this big, this daring and risky they knew they were going to need help, there was only one person they could turn to. Fred was an intelligent man but the planning behind this operation would have to be precise, detailed and most importantly fool proof. Fred and Norville had more than a couple of close shaves in the past and if they messed this up, they knew they were absolute toast.

No, to pull this off, they needed a third wheel, someone who could spot the flaws in their plotting, who could iron out the fine details, the calm and cool head, the 'brains of the operation'. There was only man, well woman as it turned out, for this job, Velma 'dead eyes' Dinkley. Where Fred and Norville were _good_ criminals, mainly for their brawn and athleticism (Well Fred anyway), Velma Dinkley was a _brilliant_ criminal. Blessed with a stupendously high IQ, Velma was so good, sometimes it took days before her crimes were even discovered. With an eye for detail, she masterminded her heists to the finest details, her plans were always brilliant secure. And Fred hated her for it. They had a couple of run in's, mostly in the dead of the night, the first time they met, Fred had suggested a team up, which she took and then double crossed them, almost getting them caught, Fred had never _forgiven _her for that, but he couldn't help but admire her, her sass, her attitude. She always seemed to have a permanent scowl, she made it clear her disdain for Fred, thought he was clumsy and careless, their relationship was frosty to say the least, her cold yet precise attitude was why Fred had given her the nick name 'dead eyes', she really did seem pretty uncaring, quite hardened, Fred didn't know what her 'story' was but guessed it contributed to the ice queen routine. But for _Norville_ and Velma it was quite a different story, for him, her icy exterior melted somewhat, if she didn't actually _like_ him, she sure as hell had at the very least a soft spot for him, he had eventually even managed to extract something of a smile from her, a momentous achievement really and so it was no surprise that once Fred had revealed his master plan and his reluctant request to involve Dinkley, that it was left to Norville to entice Velma to meet them.

Norville Rogers liked Velma Dinkley, she was easily the most intelligent girl he had ever met, and she was pretty too, she had shoulder length brown hair and wore glasses that framed her face perfectly. Though it was rare to see her smile, when she did, Norville thought it was beautiful and lit up her face. She _got_ him too, she was the only other person in his life beside Fred, Fred didn't know it, but they had even met up once, in the daylight for a coffee. He never told Fred, he knew he would disapprove, there was a healthy level of respect for her from Fred but he knew that he ultimately remained wary of Velma. So they met in secret and Velma had listened whilst Norville told his story of woe, how his parents deaths floored him, how he was left with no other family and nothing but his dog and how his old friend Fred from High School had taken him in when he had nowhere else to turn. She said very little but Norville knew she was perfectly concentrating on what he was saying, her hand rested lightly on her chin, her eyes were giving him his full attention. When he finished, she had simply reached across the table and grasped his hand gently. It was the simplest act of intimacy that Norville had ever experienced, and he had smiled gratefully, then as she often tended to do, she slipped away, into the afternoon, on this occasion, without another word said.

Now here he was, stood in the moonlit and incredibly creepy Coolsville graveyard at the stroke of midnight, waiting for her once again, her idea of course, she seemed to live her life in the shadows. Norville didn't mind admitting to himself he was terrified, if there was one place he hated it was the graveyard. It likely stemmed from burying his parents here at just 16 years old but in general it was just too goddamn creepy, it was eerily quiet, not even so much as a breeze to rustle the trees, and frankly it was giving him the heebie jeebies, he felt a whimpering by his side and looked down to his dog looking just as scared as he felt.

He stifled a chuckle, his dog Scooby was a magnificent and huge Great Dane, his parents had bought him as a puppy when Norville was 6 to act as a family guard dog. Big mistake. It became apparent from the off that Scooby was not and never was going to be a guard dog, hiding behind the couch when a monster movie was on, jumping at his own shadow, he was one cowardly pooch but he was his best friend and Norville adored him and Scooby loved his master back. He sat at his feet now, his ever faithful companion, scared of the dark of course but not willing to let his master go out alone. Norville leaned casually against the wall to the masuleum, hoping Velma would show up soon.

Fred's plan was crazy, it was seriously off the scale crazy, it was so far beyond anything they had ever done before and if it went wrong they were seriously in the shit, it was reckless, dangerous and yet the reward at the end of it was too tantalising to behold, a prize beyond words, the chance to start afresh, to become a normal citizen again to get away from this town with it's bad memories and awful people. It was exciting and yet still went against what Norville's rational mind told him.

He had said no at first, told Fred he was insane, crazy, had a death wish and slammed the door in his face, but Fred as he usually did, talked him around. It would be easy with the right level of planning, it would only last a couple of days, the reward for pulling it off would be mind blowing but most importantly of all nobody would get hurt. This was the key element, and something Fred was adamant about. They weren't hardened criminals who would literally DO anything, to pull this heist off was involving people for the first time but they would not be harmed, they didn't have it in them to hurt people, sure they may have hurt people's emotions with their crimes but they had never used violence, not ever and Fred intended to keep it at that way. Still Norville had taken time but finally he had agreed to the madcap plot and now he had to hope that Velma would agree, they _needed_ her, they couldn't pull this off if it was just them.

"Norville?" The voice came from nowhere and caused both man and dog to jump a mile as Velma appeared from the other side of the mausoleum. Her hair as usual hung loosely off her shoulders, she was was wearing a long black overcoat and black boots, a lit cigarette dangled between her lips."Why did you ask me here?"

Norville's brain clicked back into gear after being momentarily stunned by her appearance. He cleared his throat. "Fred.. sorry we," he said quickly correcting himself, " have a business proposition for you."

"No," she immediately said, cutting off Norville's protests. "I'm sorry Norville but I said I was never getting involved with you and Fred on anything again and certainly not on one of Fred's hare brained schemes. Am I right?"

"Oh yes, this literally is the craziest thing I have heard," Norville agreed "but wait!" He said seeing her turn away. "You should atleast hear him out on this, yes it's crazy but it's good."

She looked back, her interest piqued slightly "What's in it for me Shaggy?"

"What?" He asked perplexed.

"What do I get out of this deal?" She repeated.

"No, no that, what did you just call me?" He demanded.

"Oh," she said, a soft smile playing on her lips. "I called you Shaggy, it's kind of the nick name I've developed for you," she said looking affectionately at the tall, long haired boy before her. "Your hair, it's cute, like that, all shaggy."

"Oh," Norville exclaimed, not sure to be embarrassed or not. "What's Fred's nickname?"

"That's X-Rated," she laughed. "So this plan?" She said, eager to steer things back on track before things got too far into a territory she wasn't fully in control of her senses in, and frankly somewhere that scared her.

"It's best Fred explains it to you," Norville admitted. "He just sent me to see if you will agree to meeting him to discuss it."

"I see," Velma said noncommittally.

"It's risky," Norville warned, "and pretty dangerous," he added for good measure.

"You know that doesn't phase me," Velma said coolly. "Why do you need me?"

"We need a cool head," Norville smiled. "A good planner with a smart brain."

"I'm flattered you thought of me."

"It has to be you. Listen, it's not our usual heist at all, the er 'goods' we're lifting are somewhat unusual, but the riches are beyond anything you've dreamed of."

"Really?" Velma said, surprise evident in her voice. "How much are we talking?"

"Hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe even a million."

Velma looked suitably impressed. "Wow," she simply said, before a dark cloud crossed her face. "Wait, are we talking a bank robbery? Because you don't need brains for that, you need muscle, lots of it." She looked dubious once again.

"It's not a bank robbery," Norville reassured. "Just hear him out Velma, if this goes off we could all get out of here... Not together," he added quickly and sheepishly.

"Okay," she agreed. "I'll meet him and hear his crazy plan, but there's no guarantee I'll say yes. Tell him I'll meet at the warehouse tomorrow, 10pm sharp, this is against my better judgement so it better be good."

"Great!" Norville enthused.

"Bye Scooby," Velma said to the Great Dane, "see you tomorrow..Shaggy," She winked.

Norville found himself blushing, Scooby gave him a questioning look as if to say _Shaggy?_. Norville fixed him with a stare that simply urged the dog. _Not a word Scooby._

The next night Freddie, 'Shaggy' and Velma met to discuss this grand plan, to her credit Velma listened without interruption whilst Fred laid out the scene in front of her, the blond looking up expectantly at her when he finished speaking. "So, what do you think?"

"No. No! Absolutely not!" Velma was vehement in her early admission. "Are you crazy?"

"That's what I first said," Shaggy confirmed with a nod.

"This is so far out of our league, it's unreal!" She exclaimed, "we're just thieves not the criminal masterminds we would need to be to pull this off!"

"Velma," Fred attempted to soothe, "this is not as difficult as you first might think. I've already done the research, scoped out locations..."

"And that makes it OK?" She snapped, incredulous, not quite what believing what she was hearing. The arrogant and pompous Fred Jones had now finally lost his marbles. "What you're talking about is just _slightly _above robbery and burglary don't you think?"

Shaggy couldn't blame Velma for reacting the way she did, it had pretty much been his reaction when Fred had made the suggestion. As much as Velma disliked Fred, he was still confident Fred could change her mind.

"Nobody will get hurt. I completely guarantee that," Fred assured. "We'll do what we have to do, and then get the money and never see this town again."

"Oh you make it all sound so easy," Velma said sarcastically. "What about the _mental_ impact of this idea? Have you thought about that, that you're going to scare the absolute shit out of someone?"

"We'll make this as comfortable as can be," Fred said defiantly. "We'll.."

"Give her her own bedroom? Tell her it's all just a joke? You're talking about _kidnapping, _Fred! There's no such thing as a comfortable kidnapping!" Velma spat out. "That poor girl.."

"That poor girl?" It was Fred's turn to be incredulous now. "Get off your high horse Velma! There is nothing 'poor' about that girl and you know it. You can't deny those girls didn't make your life a misery at school Velma. That you too didn't dream about driving around in a convertible, an endless supply of money when you wanted it just because you were daddy's little girl. I am NOT talking about _harming_ this girl, we just take her away somewhere safe for a day or two, collect the ransom and then let her go, no damage done. By the time she raises the alarm we will be long gone, and she will be no worse for wear than being slightly shook up and will probably get over it within a week."

Stunned at first, Velma had to applaud Fred for his amazing coldheartedness. He did have a point, she had to concede. She did_ hate _those girls and they did actually make her life a misery for daring to be different. A small evil part of her mind was actually beginning to contemplate this plot right now. Though she didn't know _this_ particular rich girl, she had yet to find one that wasn't the same, wouldn't it be nice to get a little revenge for once? She couldn't believe she was even considering this, but she wore no halo, she was a criminal, did she really have it in her to contemplate doing something so wicked? A memory of the most popular girl at her school completely humiliating her in front of everyone popped into her head followed by a thought of what she could do with the money and outrageously her decision was made.

"Okay." She said, not even quite believing what she was saying. "I'll do it."

"Yeah?" Even Fred seemed surprised at the speed of her turnaround.

"Yes." She agreed. "But she doesn't get hurt and we split exactly three ways. And we take a LOT of time to sort this out, absolutely no fuck ups Fred. I can't stress how important that is, if we screw this up, we are essentially dead."

"I know Velma, that's why we've asked you to help us, to work out the technical details. I know we can do this and without a fuss," Fred said adamant.

"Right." Velma said taking temporary charge, and getting no complaints from Fred, "There are 3 key components to this plan being a success..."

And so, well into the small hours of that night, and for the next three weeks, the three young criminals plotted and schemed to carry out their ultimate heist. On paper their plan did indeed look foolproof, it was tightly controlled, research was carried out, a location was secured, there was no way things could go wrong. But unfortunately for the naive trio they did. Not least because they failed to carry out one serious and crucial piece of research but mainly because they massively misjudged their hostage to be, and she ends up turning all their lives upside down.


	2. What the hell are we thinking?

Alternative Tale Part 2

This was it, three weeks of careful planning, tracking of their target, and ironing out every pain staking detail of their plan, three nervous young crooks were ready to carry out the most daring plan they had ever contemplated. Velma Dinkey, Fred Jones and Norville 'Shaggy' Rogers had plotted for weeks and not one had spotted the obvious flaw in their planned extraction so they carried on excitedly, their plans coming down to a dark and cold late November night. Each of them had their instructions, it's fair to say each of them had their nerves, and privately each of them had their concerns.

Velma was convinced that Fred was about to screw up, she was not convinced at all that he had the mental strength to pull this off. Of course, she herself had been the most vehement of the trio opposed to the plan in the first place, but as time had passed she had warmed to the plan and was determined to see it it succeed, she didn't trust Fred as far as she could throw him and suspected the feeling was mutual.

Fred remained wary about Velma, worried she was going to attempt to double-cross them as they had been burned in the past, he knew that first opportunity she got Velma would likely be off and he vowed to remain one step ahead of her at all times.

Shaggy meanwhile, was having second thoughts about the whole thing, really what were they thinking? They were only in their late teens themselves, would they really be capable of pulling such an ambitious plan off? Privately he began to worry about Fred too, he had never seen him as ruthless as this before, if this was successful, would he really stop, like he promised he would, or would he want to get 'bigger' more dangerous, more 'violent', was he actually developing a lust for crime?

Whilst our naïve young trio were all privating harboring concerns about each other, there was one person, they really should have been more concerned about and that was the target herself, one Daphne Blake.

19 year old Daphne Blake was an ambitious young woman, she was also as far from the stereotypical 'spoilt rich brat' as you could get. This may or may not have been the crucial research that our intrepid trio, failed to carry out, we are about to find out.

It was 10pm and Daphne was just completing her daily Wednesday workout session at the gym. She typically arrived late every week, partly because she enjoyed the gym being quieter and could use the equipment she wanted without arguments and partly because her job as a trainee journalist at the _Coolsville Chronicle _meant this was the only time she had to come to the gym, usually on a Wednesday and Thursday.

Tonight,there was the usual crowd in and she nodded to those she knew, surprised when she passed a young, fit blond man, that she had never seen before. It was very much a regular's kind of gym and he wasn't the kind of man you would forget a hurry. Their eyes met, and where a less confident girl may have shyly and immediately looked away, Daphne maintained eye contact with the handsome stranger, and smiled. He nodded his head in simple acknowledgment and then that was it, they went their separate ways, him to the men's locker room, her to the ladies, which not surprisingly was empty. Reaching for her gym bag, she instantly forgot all about the guy, changing quickly putting on a fresh T-Shirt, jeans and zip up jacket, putting her workout gear in her bag. She paused to consider whether she should bother swapping her trainers for her heels, and decided as she only had to drive home it simply wasn't necessary, she just wanted to get home as soon as possible. Slipping on her earphones and setting her ipod to an upbeat playlist she was ready to go, she waved to Graham on reception 'mouthing see you tomorrow' and was met with the icy cold blast of the November night, she zipped up her jacket and walked briskly towards the underground parking garage.

Monitoring their target, there were two things that Fred had immediately noticed about Daphne Blake, one, that she certainly didn't seem the full of herself, completely annoying girl that their research had portrayed her to be and two, that the pictures of her in the press simply did not do her justice, she was quite lovely in every way and for the first time that he had put his crazy scheme in motion, Fred began to doubt himself and his motives.

She was an innocent girl, was an intense loathing of rich girls really justification for what they were about to do? They had tracked every inch of her private life to build up a timetable of her movements, it was essential so they could decide when the best time and place to attack was. Her morning jog had certainly looked promising but was soon ruled out when her route regularly took her through a park, packed with dog walkers and other runners, though their were stretches of her route that were quite isolated, it was decided it was still too risky a place to grab her without drawing attention of witnesses which they certainly did not want.

Her job took her all over the place but as she was rarely alone, with either other journalists, or had cameramen accompanying her where ever she went and the building she worked had the level of security, which meant it would be impossible to take her from, was also ruled out. That left her apartment block and her local gym which both coincidentally and rather handily for them had underground parking garages.

Happily for them, her habit of exercising late at night did not seem to be a popular one and there was usually hardly anyone left in the garage by the time she eventually left, barring the staff. What they were to do had to be swift and faultless, whilst Velma had taken charge of the security feeds by some award -winning hacking, their actual window of opportunity was still likely to be very short, this was no time for nerves, this had to executed to perfection and whilst it didn't hurt to have a back up plan, the three were confident all would go to plan A. As it happened, for their sake it was a very good job they did have a plan B.

Stepping into the elevator, it was now nearly 10.30pm, Daphne absent mindedly checked her phone as the elevator hurtled to the ground floor. A couple of texts from friends, a voicemail from her boss, nothing of any significant importance.

She slipped the phone back into her holdall as the doors pinged open. As usual it was very quiet and not for the first time she contemplated how spooky this garage was, huge dark shadows and only a small handful of cars, still, she knew it was monitored by CCTV and so for that she felt reasonably safe. She marched towards the corner of the car park where her car was and noticed with some surprise that another car was parked just a couple of spots away from hers. It was rare there was ever any car nearby at this time of night. Fumbling in her bag for her keys, she startled as she got near and saw a young woman huddled next to the other car. Immediately, she slid her earphones out, the wires dangling down either side of her throat. "Are you OK?" She enquired simply, standing close by the woman.

The woman seemed to visibly jolt in surprise first, before smiling, getting to her feet quickly. "Oh! Hi there miss, I'm just having a little trouble with my tyre that's all," she said to the redhead apologetically.

Peering down, Daphne could indeed see that she had tyre trouble, a huge slash in the front left tyre to be precise. She dropped her bag on the floor and bent to examine the tyre. "Oh you have a puncture."

"Yeah, damn kids, must be slashing tyres whilst we're in there working out, never thought to bring a spare to the gym!" the girl said dismissively.

"Oh? Graham never said anything about having problem with kids down here?" Daphne replied, her eyes instantly flickering to her own car, and noting with relief all her tyres were still intact. "Would you like to use my spare?" She offered kindly.

"Oh that would be great," the stranger said gratefully.

"Sure. Give me a hand?" She said, heading to her trunk. The woman followed her behind the car as Daphne retrieved the tire. "You want a hand to change it?" She offered.

"No I got it thanks," the woman said, accepting the tyre.

"So do you come here much?" Daphne asked conversationally, whilst she searched for the tyre jack.

"I'm pretty new to the area," the woman admitted. "I came for the first time tonight actually."

"Yeah?" Daphne murmured absent mindedly, closing the trunk.

"Yes, I came here to pick up something actually." The woman replied mysteriously.

"Oh yeah what's that?" Daphne said, locking the trunk, not looking up.

"You." The woman replied coldly, all pretence of possible friendship gone. If that simple word hadn't been enough to scare Daphne then the accompanying cocking gun, certainly was as she looked up to find herself looking down the barrell of a gun.

It's not like Daphne Blake had spent her days thinking of how she would react in such a situation, it's probably why the events that happened next, actually occurred. She didn't know what the 'natural' reaction was to having a gun pointed in your face, it was unlikely it's anything similar to what Daphne Blake did next. With her adrenalin pumping, she lifted her left leg and in a split second had kicked the gun out of the woman's hands, the action clearly shocked both Daphne and her assailant but without a second thought, Daphne launched into another kick, catching the woman squarely in the face.

She barely had a second to react to this, before a second assailant, seemingly materialising out of nowhere attempted to grab hold of her from behind, male this time, she could tell from the grip when he grabbed her wrist. Her brain didn't even have time to process the absolute danger she was in, she was still acting on pure instinct. Remembering everything her self defense classes taught her, she whirled around, smashing her palm flat against the assailant's nose. She heard the satisfying crack and knew she had broken it, when he lost his grip on her and his hands automatically went to his bloodied nose.

Her attack had obviously stunned him, he wasn't expecting her to fight back and she took advantage of this to deliver the number one attack to handicap a male attacker, to hit him where it hurt. While still winded, she aimed a kick at his crown jewels, and taking no pleasure in his anguished cry, she was too busy fleeing for her life and thanking god that she had chosen to keep her trainers on.

She half expected to be stopped a gun shot, fearing she may not even make it very far. After a few seconds, she heard frenzied footfalls and she knew that one of them was in pursuit of her, the woman most likely, so she quickened her pace, and dived into the relative safety of the elevator, jamming the button, there was an agonising wait for the doors to close and in those half seconds she could see the woman closing in and further behind her, the male was finally making an effort to move too.

Heart pounding in her chest, she stupidly cursed dropping her bag as it meant using her cell phone to call for help was out of the question, her only plan of action was to run to Graham for help. From the woman attacking her to reaching the outside again, had probably only taken 2-3 minutes at most but it seemed an eternity before the doors opened. She barrelled out of the elevator and had only got several feet away before she crashed headfirst into a warm body. Her high terror levels automatically elicited a scream before she realised the man she ran into was the blond guy from the gym.

"Hey, are you OK?" He said his face full of concern.

Tears had started to streak her face and real panic set in, as the very realisation that somebody was actually trying to hurt her and had _threatened_ her with a _gun _began to sink in.

"They've got a gun!" She blurted. "They're trying to hurt me! We have to run! They're after me!"

The man seemed startled by her outburst, but tried to calm her.

"Hey, it's OK," he comforted the redhead, reaching into his pocket as he did so.

Fred Jones knew something had gone horribly wrong somewhere, if everything had gone to plan, he should have received a phonecall by now asking him to come down to the carpark. He had followed Daphne from a safe distance and she had got in the elevator to go down to the car park well over 5 minutes ago, according to Velma's precise scheduling, 5 minutes was more than enough for the ruse and subsequent subdueing and it should all have been over now. Any longer and they were risking being disturbed as the remaining patrons left the gym and his fake 'out of order' sign on the elevator just wouldn't cut it. So he wasn't entirely surprised when the elevator doors crashed open and their target stumbled out. He rushed out to stop her, knowing that Velma and Norville had massively fucked up somewhere and this was now up to him. She was hysterically upset and in that moment he had real doubts for what he was going to do, but it was too late now, they couldn't back down now. Fingering the emergency choloroformed cloth in his pocket, with a heavy heart he prepared to strike.

With a swift motion he grabbed Daphne's wrist with one hand, spining her quickly round against his chest and with his other hand, pushed the cloth against her face.

"They're with me," he whispered sorrowfully in her ear as her eyes widened in shock at his betrayal. She struggled against him but Fred was strong and easily dragged her back into the elevator, to her credit she continued to struggle, bracing against him, trying to get him to remove the cloth from her face. Sadly for her it was futile, having expended her energy fighting the first two assailants, she wasn't capable of an even stronger third and she knew she was being slowly consumed by the noxious chemical despite her brave attempts to avoid breathing it in, his grip against her was strong and as she gave into the chemical, the last thing she remembered was the genuine look of pain and regret on her now captor's handsome face, reflected in the elevator's mirrors.

Seeing the light go out of Daphne's eyes in the mirrored panel was horrible for Fred. "I'm sorry," he whispered, feeling her body stop fighting and go limp against his as the knock out drug took hold.

"What the hell am I doing?" He silently questioned his reflection, weeks of planning had seemed exciting but really _what _were they thinking? This was somebody's life they were messing with. As he waited for the carriage to reach the bottom, he seriously contemplated just leaving her in there, and abandoning this utterly crazy scheme. But as the doors opened and he saw his bloodied and injured friend, and their female accomplice look to him expectantly, his pride got to him, this was _his_ idea, they had to see it through. He gently lifed her into his arms and carried her out of the elevator. He saw the relief in Velma's eyes and felt a smug satisfaction that it was NOT him that screwed up, it was quite clearly her. "What the hell happened?" He questioned, running with Daphne, to her car.

Both Velma and Shaggy looked very much worse for wear, Shaggy's nose was broken, Velma had a deep cut on her face.

"She fought back," Velma said brusquely, snatching up Daphne's discarded holdall from by her car.

"Velma brought a gun." Shaggy said, the disapproval evident in his voice.

Fred's mouth dropped open in shock but there wasn't the time to question this now, they needed to just get the hell out of there. They opened Daphne's car, Shaggy climbing in the passenger seat, Velma heading for the drivers, Velma popped the trunk, indicating Fred should place their hostage in there. "No way Velma, she'll suffocate!" Fred immediately protested in horror.

"Just put her in the trunk!" Velma screamed, utterly exasperated now.

"No bloody way Velma!" Fred said defiantly laying her in the backseat, and climbing in after her.

"Fine!" Velma scowled, placing in the holdall and the tyre, they weren't exactly leaving no evidence behind, they didn't have time to get rid of the blood but hopefully by the time someone figured out exactly what happened, it would be too late, Velma's stolen car wouldn't be traced back to them either.

She ran round to the driver's side, floored it and they peeled out the car park, the magnitude of exactly what they had done weighed on each of the 3 amateur kidnapper's shoulders. Shaggy was silent in the passenger seat, nursing his injuries, Velma drove to their planned location, her mind awash with thoughts. Fred sat in the back, his unconscious hostage's head resting gently in his lap. There was only one thought predominant in all their minds:

"_What the hell are we doing?"_


	3. A little help guys?

In a warehouse...in a mystery location

After an initial silence, with no one quite wanting to break the gloom, and with the three previously lost in their own thoughts, the arguments were reigning long and loud now. Fred aggressively and angrily pointing his finger at a seated Velma was the focal point of the heated discussions.

"You screwed up Velma!" Fred's accusation was seething with anger. "WHAT the hell were you thinking? Were you even thinking? A gun? Seriously? SERIOUSLY? Where did you even get that?"

"It wasn't loaded," Velma admitted quietly.

"Oh that's alright then," Fred spat sarcastically. "Do you know how far off base you are right now, I don't even recognise you any more."

"It was a risk, sure, I just thought it might help, it wasn't loaded, it could never hurt her.."

"She didn't know that though," Shaggy cut in.

"No of course not! That was the idea Shaggy, she was supposed to _think_ I could shoot her, it was to make her comply."

"Yeh fat lot of good that did," Shaggy complained.

"Well if _somebody _had done their research properly," Velma glowered pointedly at Fred, "and found out she was a freaking _Buffy_ wanabee in the making and not some weak little damsel then just _maybe, _I would have come up with a goddamn different plan!"

"She obviously took classes years ago in self defense at school, how was I supposed to know that? She doesn't look all that strong," Fred protested.

"Yeh well, appearances can be deceptive," Velma said, nursing her bruised face for emphasis. "She was quite the fighter as Shaggy and I can well testify, what else don't we know about this girl I wonder because I'm starting to get a very bad feeling that we have just made the biggest mistake of our lives, right now with what we did."

She didn't get any argument from the boys.

Meanwhile, a couple of rooms away and guarded by a dog who most definitely wasn't a guard dog, Daphne was slowly coming around from her drug induced unconsciousness. Fred may have been gentle with her but that didn't mean he was willing to compromise his plan and had tied her up reasonably securely so she couldn't escape, or so he hoped anyway.

When she opened her eyes and all she could see was darkness and all she could feel was a soft piece of material against her eyelids, her very first instinct quite naturally was one of panic, she flexed her hands, surmising they were secured behind her back and this was the point she should have started screaming and crying and generally being quite terrified but instead she remained quite still, willing her breathing to return to normal so she could begin to think rationally. She fought away all semblance of panic and began to listen. It didn't take long for her to realise she was definitely alone in this room at least, she could hear voices but although loud they were muffled and in the distance and not close enough to make out what they were saying. She concentrated again and was slightly startled to realise she could hear the soft panting of a dog, probably outside the door. _Perhaps they're not amateurs after all then_ she mused to herself, re-assessing what she knew about her captors.

They were three in number, very young, they couldn't be much older than herself if at all, which is why she had initially thought 'amateur'. She thought about what she knew about them from the attack. First of all the girl, quite small and mousy looking, she had a gun which suggested she was someone not to be messed with, but there was something in the way she had held it, it lacked conviction, like the first time she had handled a gun, like she didn't truly know what to do with it. It was that slight hand wobble and hint of doubt that had prompted Daphne to kick the gun from her hands. Still, regardless of how uncertain the woman had been, it only just occurred to Daphne how reckless she had been in trying to kick a gun away, she was very lucky she hadn't been shot by accident at the very least. The woman may have lacked conviction but she was most certainly a danger with a gun in her hand.

She thought about the first guy and how he had appeared from out of nowhere, had he been hiding behind that woman's car? Her memory of him was that he was tall, pretty scrawny and scruffy looking, she had floored him pretty easily, so for now she was tagging him as the weakest link of the trio.

That just left the other guy. Unlike the others, who she had only encountered for the first time when they attempted to harm her, she had been able to form favourable impressions of him when she first met him in the gym. Athletic and strong he had seemed to be the perfect gentleman even when she run into him outside. She cursed herself now for letting her guard down with him, handsome yes but the most dangerous of all, he had got her in a vice like grip in _seconds_ giving her no time to react before he had successfully subdued her with chloroform. _Chloroform, _she suppressed a wry smile. It couldn't have been a more cliched kidnapping if they tried, even down to the old 'flat tyre ruse' style distraction, _almost like they learned it all in a movie _she realised, firmly downgrading them back down to 'amateur' in her mind.

She could still hear the voices in the distance and figured out they were more concerned with each other than her for the time being so now was the time to try rescue herself from this situation. Her composure and rational mind in such a terrifying situation might seem surprising but not only was this girl made from tougher stuff, this wasn't exactly her first kidnapping and thus her terror levels were somewhat more muted as a response than the average person.

A man had tried to lure her away from her mother when she was a little girl to extract a ransom but had been foiled by a passer-by. Then, aged 11, another man had hijacked the car she was picked up in from school and drove her away, never once speaking to her and eventually leaving her abandoned in the car, 200 miles from home. That incident was probably the single moment that toughened her up, having to find her way home in the dark when she had no idea where she was, at just 11 years old. It was also probably the moment she lost her childhood innocence for good.

And then of course there was her fledgling career as a journalist which had got her into a fair few scrapes already, it seemed nobody in this town liked a nosy reporter and her intrepid nature had already got her into trouble, it was fair to say she wasn't averse to being tied up anyway. This was a lucky thing for her, it meant in that time she had learnt some hints and tips when it came to knots and most importantly, how to untie them.

Flexing her wrists, she began to assess how secure her bonds were, from the chafing sensation it was definitely rope not tape, double-knotted, complex but not too much so. She tried to see how much her movement was restricted and deduced she was sat on the floor, her legs were tied at the ankles with the same chafing rope, her hands were tied behind some kind of concrete pillar or post.

The first knot was close to her fingers and she began to work on it, she kept her nails long and well groomed, partly through pride in her appearance and partly through practicality, you never knew when they could come in useful like today. She managed to get her fingernails underneath the biggest knot and started to make slow but steady progress loosening the voices started to get even louder, to the point that she could make out the odd little phrase or two, she wondered if they were so wrapped up in their own issues that they had actually forgot about her. The rope was now much looser but not to the point that she could free her wrists yet. She continued to work to free herself, attempting to listen to her captors while she worked, until she heard the woman say something that made her freeze in shock.

In the short few minutes since she had come round from unconsciousness and thought about who could be behind this (she had strongly doubted these three young pups were working alone), it never once occurred to her it could be _him. _Just hearing his name upset her, she knew he hated her, they had made their feelings perfectly known to each other, she knew he suspected that she was investigating him but could he really do this, hire somebody to harm her? Daphne didn't want to believe he could be so cruel but she had to consider it.

There wasn't much time for her to think about this however as voices started to get a LOT closer, she could now hear footsteps right by the door, somebody was coming in, she had just managed to wriggle one hand free of the rope when she heard deadbolts pulled back, two to be precise which she made a mental note of, and finally a key turned in the lock. The door swung open with something of a loud bang and somebody entered, from the click of the slight heel, it was easy for Daphne to assume even from behind her blindfold, that it was the woman.

Velma walked uncertainly forward, her heels clicking on the hard concrete floor, she carried with her a tray containing a cup of water and some food. Their captive did not move, even when Velma flicked a light switch on, flooding the dark prison with light, the redhead did not even flinch. Still, Velma's experience told her it was wise to always exercise caution and she hesitantly proceeded forward toward their bound and blindfolded guest. She didn't know why Fred had insisted on that, it wasn't like she hadn't seen their faces but Fred had declared it made it more 'official' and she was far too tired to argue. She set the tray down gently on top of a crate and moved in closer to Daphne, she was breathing steadily but for all the world she looked like she remained unconscious, she crouched down cautiously to try and rouse the young woman.

Daphne remained perfectly still, hearing the woman get closer and closer still, until she was almost right in front of her, by now she had successfully freed her hands, and she waited patiently for the right moment to attack. She felt the woman's slightly stale cigarette breath near her ear and with this she struck, shooting her bound legs out at the woman with such speed and shock that it completely caught her off guard, Velma crashed to the floor with a bump, not quite somehow believing that their captive had managed to get the upperhand over her again. Just like at the gym, the redhead moved at lightning speed, and though her ankles were still bound her hands definitely were not, she had her blindfold off in a flash and now she was coming right at Velma, she stumbled to her feet, as their captive flew at her back, she just managed to get her hands off her neck long enough to call for help as Daphne clawed at her hair.

"ER GUYYS? A LITTLE HELP IN HERE?"


	4. I'm so sorry

Fred was startled by Velma's cry, he and Shaggy looked at each other before racing to the room they had left Daphne in. They both gasped in shock at what they saw, Velma and their hostage virtually wrestling each other on the floor. Fred stared ahead at Daphne, stunned, _The knots! I did them so tight! How the hell did you get free? _He momentarily wondered before snapping to his senses. Shaggy charged past him and pulled Velma off Daphne, who looked so enraged in that moment he feared she might actually harm her. Shaggy dragged her out the room, cursing and screaming whilst Fred made a bee line for Daphne, his strong arms immediately encircled her small waist as he gently but firmly pulled her up from the floor.

Just as before Daphne continued to fight and struggle but knew the game was the up when the blond man grabbed hold of her, he was just too strong. She squirmed in his arms, letting out a frustrated cry of "NO!" when she saw the other scruffier guy returning with a roll of duct tape in his hands. Her assailant held her firmly while the other gripped her arms and wrapped tape tightly around her wrists.  
>Realising her means of escape were severely getting restricted once again, she resorted to pleading.<p>

"Please! Please don't do this!" She begged, on the verge of tears now.

But neither man responded to her pleas, with her wrists bound again, and her aggressive stance now stilled, Fred was able to carry her to a chair quite easily and her shoulders slumped in defeat as she submissively allowed them to bind her to the chair with the tape, it was clear after what happened earlier they were taking no chances this time, securely strapping her to the wooden backed chair. Satisfied with their job they retreated away, but not before Daphne looked the blond squarely in the eye.

"Please",she tried. "Please tell me why you are doing this!" The blond looked away, silent. She tried again. "Who are you working for?" Nothing. "Please! Speak to me, tell me what you want!" She cried desperately, looking from one man to the other. But still they remained silent and she sobbed in frustration now "Why are you doing this to me?"

Her cries seemingly left the pair unmoved and the first walked out, only the blond remained uncertainly. He seemed like he might say something "I" but he hesitated and the words froze in his mouth. Instead, he reached for the light switch, enveloping the room in darkness once more. Only now that he couldn't see her face, did he speak. "I'm so sorry," he said it sincerely, pain etched across his face, but unseen by her.

"Then why?" Her simple, choked words hung in the air unanswered as he finally left the room, shutting the door firmly behind him, leaving the poor girl in the dark in more than one way, her quiet sobs the last thing he heard, as the final deadbolt slid into place.

Fred slumped hard against the door, the faint sound of Daphne's tears still in his ears. This was even harder than he could have imagined it would be. He hated himself in this moment, hated himself for this crazy plan of his, for the terror he had instilled in this innocent young girl. He didn't consider himself an emotional person but even so thought he was stronger than this, he thought he would be able to detach himself for this one big thing, just a few days and his life could change for good, it was supposed to be easy, so why was he feeling like this? The voice in his head told him exactly why and he tried to suppress that feeling but he couldn't deny it, he knew it from the moment he had first clapped eyes on her and then when their eyes met across that gym floor and she had smiled. From that moment all thought of detachment had gone out of the window, he was emotionally involved, he couldn't help it, there was something about this girl, something about her that gave him butterflies in his stomach, a feeling he hadn't in a long time. Yet instead of pursuing her like a normal person, he had quite _literally_ pursued her, kidnapped her and locked her up in a cold, dark room. Not the _greatest _way to create a good first impression! He pocketed the door key and sighed wondering just how his life had managed to get so screwed up.

Velma stood at the sink with a new scratch on her face courtesy of her latest cat-fight with the redhead and decided there and then, she _really_ did not like this girl. Twice now she had managed to get the drop on her and for Velma that simply just did NOT happen ever. She had made something of a career of wrapping people around her fingers, was always ahead of the pack, never behind it, it was she who had the upper-hand over Fred and Shaggy, not the other way around. She prided herself on being the smart one and had been secretly pleased when she got the call that they needed her, it made her feel like a strong woman. That was until this woman had come along and twice now had left her looking very stupid. She was not happy, although a small part of her commended the woman, there was a severe shortage of strong females in this town, so it was too bad they had seemingly kidnapped one of the only ones. As she bathed her latest wound acquired courtesy of their feisty hostage, not for the first time since they had carried this crazy plot out, she wondered if they had actually bitten off more than they could chew. She caught sight of Fred in the mirror and bristled, prepared for another fight with the headstrong self-appointed leader. "Please don't start Fred," she said, the tiredness and frustration evident in her voice.

"I'm not going to start," he replied, looking just as exhausted as she felt. "We got this wrong didn't we?" He admitted softly.

She resisted the urge to hit him with the 'I told you so's', instead simply nodding her head in agreement. "Massively," she asserted. "We're not cut out for this," she declared starkly. "I don't know what we were thinking."

"Greed," replied a third voice, joining the self- doubting pair. Both Fred and Velma turned to acknowledge Shaggy. "We got so excited at the prospect of what we could achieve from this that we lost sight of all sense. We rob a few stores, con a few people and yet somehow convinced ourselves that we could pull off a kidnapping, we lost sight of reality."

"You're right," Fred said, feeling the panic start to seep into all of them, he fought to keep some semblance of control, they couldn't blow it now, the consequences were huge. "But it's done now and we've got to see this through to the end, we cannot lose our heads. We need to continue what we've started and stick to the plan. Tomorrow morning we make the call, arrange the drop-off. We let her go. Never see her again, get the money and get the hell out of this town. Wham! New start."

"You still make it all sound so easy," Velma observed dryly. "She's smart, very smart in fact, if we underestimate her, we're gonna get burnt big time."

"I know," Fred exclaimed, "which is why I want this to be over as soon as possible, to get her out of our hands so we can all move on from this. I'm anticipating this will all be over by tomorrow night."

"I thought the original plan was to hold her for 2 nights?" Shaggy queried.

"I don't want her here any longer than necessary," Fred clarified, not willing to divulge to his friend, the exact reason why he couldn't bear to be around the redhead.

"So tonight we rest," he announced. "We'll take it in turns to check up on her, though I'm sure it will be fine now, the rope was a mistake, it's regretful we needed to take such a tough approach to restraining her but I feel it is necessary if we don't want this to blow up in our faces. I can't even begin to explain how catastrophic an escape would be, _for all of us." _He warned emphatically.

"I have the key," he continued, "I'll leave it in the second room, where it will stay at all times, on the hook. There is only one rule when going in her room and that is no to speak to her at all, it's for the best she knows as little as possible about this."

Velma and Shaggy nodded their agreement and then retreated to the sleeping bags they had prepared for bedding down on in the corner of the old warehouse. Nobody knew they were here, they felt reasonably secure of that, but worry gnawed at both of them, her disappearance would surely have been noted by now, how soon would the finger of blame point towards them, neither of them were at all confident that they would be able to get away with this, the drop off and ransom would be the most difficult to carry out, of that Velma was sure.

As she lay in her sleeping bag, she wondered if Fred would have the mettle to carry this through, she had seen enough movies and TV shows to know that extraction was rarely simple, while some immediately coughed up, she knew that others required more_ persuasion_ and it was this that she was most worried about. She knew Fred was adamant about not harming this girl and as much as she disliked her, she didn't actually want to hurt her either but they might well need the _threat_ to hurt her and she didn't know if Fred was capable of that, it might well fall on her. This was just one of many things that kept her awake that night, nobody in that warehouse got much sleep but as much as Velma and the others spent many hours theorizing what could happen next, nobody could predict the stunning events that tomorrow beheld, events that for each and every one of Fred Jones, Norville Rogers,Velma Dinkley and Daphne Blake, would change their lives forever.


	5. You just don't give up do you?

A/N Sorry for the delay, I haven't forgot this, it's just I work in a school and have been super busy the last few months, but as it's now the six week holiday I can return to this and get the chapters up fairly frequently, hope you continue to enjoy, here is part 5.

Daphne couldn't help being furious at herself but the frustration at having her escape attempts thwarted had brought her emotions to the forefront. It was partly frustration but also exhaustion was creeping in, she had expended a lot of energy trying to fight them off and she couldn't remember when she last ate, she was physically and emotionally drained and she had let those emotions get the best of her. She was determined never to appear so weak again in front of any of them but especially _him._

Daphne was confident she could get the best of the woman, she had proved that twice now, she had caught her out, got her on the floor and probably would have succeeded in knocking her out until the boys rushed in to the room and getting past them was a bigger challenge, one was quite fast, the other incredibly strong. When the blond grabbed her, he had gripped her so tightly, it was impossible to slip free,he had such strong arms and a broad chest. Any hope of squirming free and slipping past them, had gone out the window and that's why she had temporarily given up.

She cursed herself for her weakness in that moment and for showing him her tears, he wouldn't see them again. All she wanted was answers, when she had been in this kind of position before those who had taken her had never been shy of informing her of their goals, usually it was to keep her quiet about something but she always knew what they wanted. These three however had barely uttered a word barring the snippets she had overheard and the blond's apology in the darkness. It was driving her mad, just what did they want, she tried to think of her recent investigations and if any stood out as particularly putting herself in danger. Since her near death experience after falling foul of a drugs gang, she had tried to tone down the more dangerous investigating and she couldn't think of anything she was currently working on which would make anyone want to harm her. That just left one candidate and her heart ached at the mere possibility that he could ever be so cruel, there was no love lost between them but would he actually order her abduction or possibly worst? She didn't know what to think she just wanted answers and she was determined to get them. She thought about screaming until they could stand it no longer and had to shut her up but settled for another method of getting their attention.

Fred was just starting to doze off when he heard it, a short, snap loud 'THUD!' as something hit the floor hard, he sat up in his sleeping bag and looked across at his sleeping, partners in crime. Neither so much as twitched and so he knew it was going to have to be him that investigated. He knew exactly where it had come from and hid a wry smile as he wondered what she had done now. He stood silently at the door, listening for any further noises and got nothing, he knew she was potentially trying to trap him but he was prepared, she wouldn't get past him and besides there was no way she could be running free anyway!

Cautiously, he drew back the deadbolts, opened the door slowly and steeled himself for an attack, he could barely stifle a grin as a flick of the switch revealed exactly what had made the loud thump.

Somewhat sheepishly sitting amidst the broken wood, of the arm of the chair she had tipped over and was still very much strapped to, was Daphne. Fred couldn't help breaking the rule that he had implied of the others.

"You just don't give up do you?" He said softly.

"Would you?" She shot back angrily.

"No, I don't suppose I would," he replied thoughtfully, looking at the angry girl before him. He shuffled awkwardly towards her and set her and the chair upright again. "Probably not a good idea to try that again," he told her conversationally. "Door's locked tight anyway."

"Well anything was worth a try," she said, weighing up in her head what her remaining options were, she had got him talking at least, this was a starting point, she could coax out his plans. Seeing him set to leave again she started to panic. "No! Wait! Please! I need some water, and something to eat please!" She said indicating the untouched food and upturned tray lying some feet away from her.

Fred quickly realised after the altercation with Velma that she hadn't actually been fed as planned and they had no intention of mistreating her so without any hesitation he picked up the still full water cup and held it to her lips, she sipped it down gratefully, feeling instantly re hydrated. Fred glanced at the cold soup and bread on the tray and knew he couldn't give her that and picked up the tray. "I'll be back in a minute," he promised, hastily locking the door and in the kitchen, opening a fresh can of soup, he warmed it up in a pan, cut and buttered a fresh loaf and carried it back into the room.

Daphne eyed the piping hot soup hungrily, it smelt so good, she waited for him to untie her hands but was dismayed when he made no move to do so.

"You know I can't do that," he said apologetically, indicating her bound hands, "not after what happened before."

She growled in frustration, "Oh come on, what am I supposed to do now?"

Scooping a chair up he sat opposite her, soup in hand, and spooned it up. With horror, she realised his intentions and automatically clamped her mouth shut as he brought the spoon to her lips. "I won't have you feeding me, it's degrading!" She told him defiantly.

Fred shrugged, "it's either that or go hungry."

She sat defiant for a few more seconds but eventually hunger won out over humiliation and her resolution crumbled, reluctantly opening her mouth so he could feed her the soup. Daphne swallowed each mouthful in uncomfortable silence, it was humiliating but there was also something strangely intimate about it, perhaps it was the way he looked at her, how he spooned up each morsel carefully, gently blowing on it before offering it to her lips, in another world, in another life this could have been seen as something quite loving, a man feeding his lover, if you just ignored the fact that she was in actual fact his unwilling hostage of course. She ate every last morsel without ever saying a word and desperately avoiding eye contact with Fred. He set the bowl back on the crate and picked up the glass of water, allowing her some more small sips and being careful not to let it dribble down her front. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat as the silence continued.

Sighing, she wetted her lips to speak, "so you really won't give me any answers?" She said softly.

"It's for the best that you know as little as possible," he admitted equally as softly.

"I just need to know why," she said exasperated before adding almost in a whisper, "are you going to kill me?"

He looked instantly horrified "No! Of course not!" He said vehemently, stunned that she could think he was capable of that. "No harm will come to you," he assured her, "you have my absolute word."

She couldn't deny hearing those words wasn't a relief but it also led to more frustrations, just who was behind it who could order her abduction but not kill her? Her enemies in the past more often than not wanted her dead.

She nodded, "just tell me who you work for, just at least give me that, which story are they seeking retribution for?"

He looked genuinely surprised at her question. "They?" He said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, 'they'" she confirmed, "they who are behind this little caper, you must be working for someone."

"I'm not," he blinked in confusion, "this is all my own plan."

For a second her mouth hung open in shock, before she laughed softly."You, just you?"

"Just me," he nodded, seeing her continue to stare incredulously, he folded his arms almost a little defensively. "Why is that so hard to believe?"

"It's just you don't look cut out for this kind of work." She offered, she nearly added 'and you have such kind eyes' but bit her tongue.

"This is all just a means to an end," he shrugged. "I am genuinely sorry it has come to this but this was the easiest way of getting what I wanted."

"Which is?" she pressed.

"Money of course!" He exclaimed, surprised at her genuine confusion, wasn't this always why rich girls were kidnapped? What was she expecting?

"Oh," she simply said, digesting the information slowly, this wasn't about revenge or any form of retribution or even about silencing a nosy reporter, it was just for plain, old ransom. These three young kids had kidnapped her just to extract money. Her initial relief only lasted a few seconds before a wave of dread spread over her. Just who exactly were they planning to extract the money from? _Who do kidnappers normally call when they have a ransom to collect! _Her brain screamed at her, her blood ran cold. _NO! No, they couldn't, they couldn't make such a blatant mistake._

But as the blond happily mentioned something about calling 'daddy dearest' with horror she realised their intentions, at first she thought that HE might have been the one BEHIND all this but the reality was far worse.

She began to tear up, "No!" She cried, "you don't understand!" Fred's face twisted into a frown but he didn't have chance to question her further about her puzzling reaction as he heard Velma shouting his name. Panicked, and desperate to quieten Daphne and also terrified Velma would realise he had broken the rules, he grabbed the duct tape and sealed it on her lips, pushing it down firmly over her now tear stained face. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he begged shushing her with a finger to her lips.

"Fred?" Velma's voice sailed through again, more urgent this time. He scrambled to the door, bolting it shut behind him, his heart beating so fast, his brow was sweaty and he dabbed at it with a necktie. What the hell was that all about? Why did he feel SO guilty about getting caught speaking with her, after HE had made the rules? _You know why_ an insistent voice had nagged at the back of his head, he pushed the thoughts away, attempting to appear as calm as possible as Velma appeared.

"Heeey," he said leaning against the door in what he hoped was a casual manner.

"Everything OK?" She asked, "She causing trouble again?"

"Erm, she tried to escape again," Fred admitted causing the brunette's eyes to widen behind her glasses.

"Well she's persistent, I'll give her that." Velma acknowledged. "All taken care of?"

"Er yeah, she's secure again." He confirmed, "although I had to gag her, she was making too much noise." He said almost sheepishly.

"You did what you had to do." Velma replied curtly, seeing no problem with that development, it was perhaps about time they got more rough, showed they meant business. She eyed Fred suspiciously who was still looking more than a bit shifty, she could easily guess why, it was written all over his guilty face. _Oh boy _she thought, the stupid kid had broken 'Kidnapping 101's' most golden rule – 'Never, ever form an attachment to your hostage and DEFINITELY DON'T under ANY circumstances, fall for your hostage.' Fred had broken this, she could tell from the ashen look he was currently sporting. _Shit. _This could only mean one thing, their fearless leader had now crumbled and their plan was on the verge of collapse. _Time for some much needed choice words_ she resolved.

"Get your head back in the game!" She told him sharply, perhaps even sharper than she had initially intended.

"I know Velma, it's just too difficult, it's _so_ much harder than I thought it would be," he admitted soberly.

"She is not what I imagined," Velma agreed, "and this is incredibly harsh on her...but... hey!" she cautioned quickly, seeing Fred about ready to spring the lock and set their hostage free. "We're almost there now," she pointed out smartly. "It's 5 a.m, in two hours time, you'll make the call, this nightmare will be over and you can have the life you have always dreamed of."

"I don't think I can do this," he said, barely above a whisper.

"You can and you _have _to," she declared firmly. "She has seen our faces, what do you think she will do if we let her go? We _cannot_ return to our old lives as if nothing happened. We will be starting a new life alright, at Coolsville State Penitentiary." It was a harsh reality that Velma painted but Fred reluctantly realised she was right, there WAS no going back, no matter how much he wished he could turn back the clock.

"Think of the money," she urged. "What happened to you and to Shaggy was not fair, you can start again from this, it's not ideal and it's not fair to her but life isn't fair," she added somewhat bitterly."Go and rest," she demanded, "I'll take over now, you'll need the energy."

Still looking ashen, Fred heeded her advice and headed for his sleeping quarters, leaving Velma to keep watch. The dawn was rapidly arriving and the morning birds had begun their happy sing song, but a dark cloud still hung over all the occupants in the old warehouse.


	6. Kill The Bitch

As 7 a.m approached, Shaggy, Fred and Velma were psyching themselves up for the events to come. While all wore a brave outer facade, inside each were once again harboring worries. It seemed so simple, could it really ever be _that _simple?

Clutching the phone and Velma's voice distortion equipment, they all filed solemnly into their prisoner's room. Daphne looked up sorrowfully, her red rimmed eyes still bearing the signs of the many tears she had shed and betrayed an obvious lack of sleep. Fred's heart automatically clenched at the sight of her, before his inner self repeated the mantra he had tried to robustly ingest. _She is just a means to an end, you will never see her again_. Even then he did his best to make no eye contact. _Don't look at her, don't look at her, this will be all over soon._

Daphne eyed them all warily. _This is it_ she thought _I wonder how they'll react? _Her money was on the brunette strangling her in an instant fit of fury. All night she had furtively tried to free herself in a desperate attempt to protect herself, for when in her mind, they inevitably turned on her despite Fred's 'promise.' She was going to die here, she was fully convinced of that now, she could only hope it would be quick and painless.

She braced herself as dead on the dot of 7, Fred dialed what she assumed would be her father's number.

Fred willed away all his nerves, all kidnappers he had ever seen in the movies were always calculating, often cold and above all confident, after all no one had ever taken a nervous kidnapper seriously. Getting the signal from Velma that the distortion equipment was all ready he started his prepared speech, he barely had one sentence out before Daphne's father responded.

In all the time that Fred had meticulously planned this escapade he had never once considered how her father was going to react, anger, upset? He recalled watching the hundreds of movies and T.V shows with kidnappings in, but nothing could _ever_ have prepared him for the reaction he got from her father on telling him 'we have your daughter, she will be killed if our demands aren't met.' For a few seconds he stood there in shock unable to comprehend exactly what he had heard. Velma collapsed in shock, Shaggy put his head in his hands and Daphne closed her eyes, her face fixed in an expression of pain.

If his hideous laughter wasn't still reverberating in Fred's head seconds after, then his callous and shockingly hollow words certainly were:

"_Excellent, that saves me a problem, kill the bitch"_ He delivered in a cold, mocking tonebefore abruptly disconnecting.

_Kill the bitch _Fred couldn't get the shocking refrain out of his head, his _own _daughter, his OWN daughter!

"We screwed up!" Velma screamed, breaking the stunned silence "We totally screwed up! What the fuck are we going to do now?"

Nobody had an answer, everyone was too stunned by the outburst on the phone.

"I just don't understand how this happened," she continued angrily, virtually talking to herself. "The newspaper reports, everything, they all suggested she was the apple of her daddy's eye!"

She shook her head in disgust towards Daphne before throwing her hands up and storming out in a rage, Shaggy swiftly followed, desperately trying to placate her, even though they all knew their plans were in tatters, nobody had any idea what to do now, in the space of one phone call, their entire world's had come crashing down around them, Daphne's included.

For Fred though, the shock had quickly subsided to anger, but not anger at his perfect plans unraveling and leaving him with an uncertain future but anger at the way Mr Blake had just so callously written off his own daughter. No matter how bad things were between them and they obviously had SEVERELY misjudged the relationship between them, what could ever prompt a parent to wish death on their flesh and blood? In that moment his heart ached for Daphne, he already knew what he was going to do now, he was going to release her, take her back to where they abducted her from.

He didn't care about the consequences anymore, that cold and shocking response was the jolt he needed that what they had planned to do was completely wrong, and he was sickened at himself thinking about the glee he had put this plan together with. He now _needed_ to do the right thing, and the right thing beyond any doubt, was letting her go. Screw what Velma or Shaggy thought, he would defend her with his own body if necessary and if she went straight to the police as he thoroughly expected her to, he would deal with that too and accept his punishment.

Shutting the door and blocking out all the shouting and throwing stuff going on outside as Velma continued her rage, he went to Daphne, she seemed remarkably calm considering what had just happened, it obviously hadn't been that much of a shock to her.

He gently peeled the tape off her face, wincing at the slight hiss of pain it elicited from her.

"You picked the wrong girl," she simply stated when she regained control of her vocal cords.

"Daphne I am so sorry," Fred said genuinely. "We screwed up so bad, hell no _I_ screwed up, this was a crazy, crazy plan and I can't believe I ever went through with it," he exclaimed, as he cut the tape from her wrists and ankles. It wouldn't have surprised him if she kicked him hard in the crown jewels in that moment and he would totally have deserved it but to his immense surprise she made no attempt to even move, merely rubbing her sore wrists.

"At least I know now," she mused, "I always knew he thought I was getting too close to the truth and trying to scare me off but now I know he's not above killing me." She said hollowly, her voice laced with the pain she felt.

"What happened?" Fred asked, before he could he help himself, he forgot all about his own situation, he was intrigued only about her. How could they have got it so incredibly wrong, she wasn't a stuck up rich brat with doting parents who would do anything like they wrongly assumed, she was in a living nightmare and they had only gone and made it worse. He cursed himself for his stupidity and knew he would look back in shame at the past 24 hours.

Daphne was actually just as shocked as the kids by the turn of events, she knew her father wouldn't ever consider bowing to their ransom demands, she expected him to dismiss them off hand but to actually dismiss _her_ so crudely too!

She knew she had got too close, she knew he knew that she was on his tail and he would probably do something to stop her but to hear he was actually content to have her _killed_ and probably was planning to do so, shocked her. Their relationship hadn't always been this rocky but ever since her mother and uncle had died in a terrible accident when she was five, he had been cold and unloving, he gave her what she wanted materially but not what she craved emotionally and as she had inherited her mother's naturally inquisitive skills, her gentle probing into her father had uncovered some shocking home truths.

She hesitated before replying to Fred's question, exactly what was she doing? He had untied her now, the door wasn't locked, she should be out this room like a shot, never daring to look back in case he changed his mind but instead she hadn't moved, she knew why, her heart was in a whole lot of trouble but she knew he wouldn't hurt her. She told him the truth.

"My father is actually a gangster," she declared flatly. "I found out the truth when I was 16. He's involved in some very dodgy things, he hides behind the facade of being a successful businessman but the truth is he is a very dangerous man and I think he knows that I know this. I am THIS close to exposing him, with evidence that could put him away for a long time. That's what he meant by saving him a job, he was going to put a hit out on me at some point, it's obvious, he knows I can bring his empire crashing down. He tried to dissuade me away from journalism and when that didn't work he tried scaring me away with his heavies and now I guess this is his final stand."

Fred listened in stunned silence, Devon Blake was a gangster? He was going to order a hit on his own daughter? This just didn't make any sense to him. "Wow," was all he could say in response.

"You sure picked the wrong girl huh," she repeated with a slight smile. "Sure, we have money, lots of it but it's all dirty, and he wouldn't waste a penny of it on such a trivial matter as rescuing his only daughter from kidnappers," her voice was tinged with sadness and anger."You heard what he said, he was actually happy! _It saved him a job_ like I was just another drugs shipment or something. I know he doesn't love me like a father should but hoped there was at least some shred of humanity left within him, I guess I was wrong." She said with a shrug.

"But the newspapers, the social events?" Fred pressed, incredulous.

"All just a clever facade," Daphne confirmed. "It's very important to him that we keep up the perfect relationship for the camera, nobody would ever suspect we were anything but the brave father soldiering on without his beloved wife and doting on his only daughter, but the truth is a million miles away, I'm threatened to keep up the act, when I told him I wasn't going to one of his fancy events last year, he had my then boyfriend beaten up so badly he could barely walk. He was probably THRILLED when you called him, it meant he didn't have to do the dirty on his daughter after all." She finished with a grimace.

"Shit, I'm so sorry," Fred said softly. "You have to put up with all that and then we did THIS to you." In that moment Fred was beside himself with anger, they were so unbelievably wrong!

"I wouldn't worry," Daphne dismissed, "no one will even notice I'm gone yet, I'm not due at work until 5p.m. and Graham never checks that car-park ever, no one will even bat an eyelid if there's blood all over the floor. We can just pretend this never happened." She still made no attempt to move despite being free of her bonds.

"No," Fred said, "it's not right that we can do this to you and just get away with it."

"You _want_ me to go to the police?" She said, her eyebrows slightly raised.

"We deserve to be punished, kidnap is still kidnap."

"It's hardly my first time." She replied.

"What?!" He cried, aghast. "That's even worse then! Oh god I am a terrible person." Fred cursed himself.

"I don't think you are," Daphne said softly, "You're obviously in a desperate position, desperation makes people do crazy things." she clarified.

"No amount of money problems or feeling sorry for myself can justify what I did to you." Fred declared seriously.

"Maybe not," Daphne agreed, "but it doesn't mean I can't forgive you."

Daphne couldn't believe what she was saying, he and his friends had ruthlessly plotted and kidnapped her, holding her against her will and yet here she was having a friendly conversation with him, her kidnapper. _You know why you're still sat here when you could have run long ago _the voice in her head chastised her again, she tried to push the thoughts away but she knew deep down why she was still here, she knew from the moment she had smiled at him, when he guiltily apologized for what he had done, and when he came to feed her.

It was the worst thing she could possibly have done, falling for her abductor and she had never once come close to this before, but then her abductors in the past had never been this good. She couldn't deny her feelings, there was something between them and she knew he must feel something too. It was the reason he was still here too instead of fleeing like his buddies.

"I don't want your forgiveness," he said brusquely, suddenly he knew exactly what he wanted, how he could make amends for all of this, to make amends for all the bad choices he had made in his life. "I want to help you."

He said it so sincerely, she knew instantly he was absolutely serious and she got that butterfly sensation in her stomach again.

"We can all help you," he continued, "we can put our skills to good use, we'll help take your father down," he resolved. Fred didn't know if what he was saying was even possible, it sounded like Daphne's father had quite the empire and they were just kids after all but he was sure they would try, he would make damn sure they at least tried to help her, it was the least that they could do for her. Besides he quite liked a good mystery and sensed there was a LOT to unravel when it came to Devon Blake.

The turn of events in just one hour or so inside that warehouse had been stark and contrasting. For the first time since he had first laid eyes on her in the gym last night, she smiled at him, she rose unsteadily to her feet, having been bound for so long, she was more than a bit shaky, without hesitation his arm shot out to her to steady her and somehow his other hand found hers, as she clasped it uncertainly, it was clear this was the start of an uneasy new alliance.

A/N – That was very Fred/Daphne heavy but they are the focal of this story but don't worry the others will feature strongly in the next few parts! How will Shaggy and Velma react to this pact?

Will they want to help? Just how will they go about bringing down a crime empire if they couldn't even handle a kidnapping and what will Daphne's father do when he finds out she isn't dead? All these answers to come!


	7. We Have To Help Her

Seeing Fred stroll out almost arm in arm with their former hostage was slightly**** surprising to Shaggy but then like Velma, he had already sussed that something was going on, he knew his best friend well, he had that same**** goofy look on his face he always got when he fell hook line and sinker for someone. The fact that for her part she hadn't run screaming away the first chance she got suggested to Shaggy that the feeling must be at least, partially mutual.

"She's gone," he said indicating Velma's obvious absence, "I don't know where she's gone, once she was done throwing things, she just left."

"Can't say I blame her," Daphne exclaimed, "I'm guessing this isn't exactly what she expected to happen."

"Fred, what's going on?" Shaggy implored.

Fred quickly filled Shaggy in with all what Daphne had told him.

"Holy shit!" Shaggy said in horror, "I'm so sorry, I had no idea," he apologised to the redhead.

"I'm sorry I broke your nose," she told him.

"No sweat, I deserved that," Shaggy replied

"Shaggy, we have to help her," Fred declared.

"Of course, of course, whatever it takes" Shaggy agreed, like Fred having been jolted back to reality with that phone call and needing to make amends.

"Now we just need Velma," Fred said, knowing she would be a crucial asset but also knowing she would be incredibly hard to get on board after everything's that happened.

"So what now?" Shaggy asked

"Now I get a hot shower!" Daphne announced. "But I can't go back to my own apartment, dad will be wanting to ensure I don't return."

"What about the guards by your door?" Fred asked.

Daphne looked slightly troubled for a moment before remembering the young man had done thorough research on her life. "They're hired by dad to make him look protective, the reality is if he orders them to turn on me, they will."

"Ouch," Fred offered. "Well you can come and stay with me and Shaggy, you'll be safe there as your dad still doesn't know who we are."

"Oh he'll be looking though, you can be sure he'll be tracing that phone."

"He won't find it though," Shaggy said confidently.

"No?"

"No," Shaggy confirmed, "Velma's a bit of a genius when it comes to gadgets and will have the signal pinging all over the place, it won't be traced." He said, a tinge of pride in his voice at his absent friend.

"Impressive," Daphne commented. "So my car, I see you took it," she said indicating it under the tarpaulin in the corner. "I'll have to leave that here too as he'll be looking for it, you got any other wheels?"

"Oh yes," Shaggy grinned, "follow me!"

Shaggy led them to another part of the warehouse, where a large green van stood. Opening the doors he revealed it was all kitted out.

"Wow dude you've been hiding _this_ from me?" Fred said, "I thought you said it was an old beat up van?"

"It _ was" _Shaggy said proudly, "I've been working on it a while"

"That's really good going" Fred said genuinely, "it's looking good"

Suddenly, something emerged from under one of the shag pile blankets and jumped out, causing Daphne to start.

"Relax," Shaggy soothed. "This is just my dog Scooby Doo" he said indicating the huge ball of energy that was his Great Dane.

Scooby sniffed at Daphne's hand and then wagged his tail happily.

"He likes you," Shaggy explained, "he remembers your scent from before, when he was sat outside your door" he added embarrassed.

Daphne looked surprised "Oh," she said "this is the guard dog?"

"Ha! Yeh I know he's not much of a good one, scared of his own shadow this one" Shaggy said affectionately.

"Ah if only I'd known!" Daphne said ruefully, stroking the dog's head.

"We should probably get going" Fred said eyeing his watch, "we need to find Velma, there's no telling what she might do."

A noticeable cloud crossed Shaggy's face and it was obvious to Daphne that he cared deeply for this girl.

Scooby jumped back into the van and Fred and Daphne followed into the back, Shaggy took the wheel, and drove out into the brightening morning, anxiously looking for signs of his friend. The warehouse, one previously owned by Shaggy's parents was in a pretty isolated area, there wasn't too many places she could have gone.

Sure enough, after just fifteen minutes driving around the district, Shaggy caught sight of her and stopped the van, leaping out the driver's seat. Velma spotted him immediately and broke into a run, she was no match for the quick Shaggy though and he quickly caught up to the brunette, grabbing her around her waist and swinging her onto his shoulders.

"Shaggy!" She shrieked, "Put me down!"

"Nope."

"So now you're resorting to kidnapping _me_" she said miserably "Great."

"You need to see sense Velma" Shaggy told her, carrying her back to the van. Opening the door, he eased her down gently and into the van, swiftly locking the door before she had chance to protest.

Velma scowled before realising she wasn't alone and noticed Fred and Daphne sitting side by side on the opposite side of the van.

"Oh well isn't this cosy!" She drawled sarcastically "I knew it!" she added for good measure. "Have you been in on this all along, was this all just a game to humiliate me?!" She demanded of the redhead.

"No," Daphne shook her head emphatically, "I'm still a victim."

"You're awfully close to the man who kidnapped you," Velma observed dryly.

Both Fred and Daphne squirmed uncomfortably. "She needs our help Velma."

Velma snorted "You're going to help her? After kidnapping her and holding her hostage? Is this your way of making it up to her?"

"Something like that," Fred said defiantly. "Look Velma she really does need our help, you heard that conversation, you heard what her father said, he wants her dead."

Velma started to soften a little, "that's some crazy shit you're in girl," she told Daphne.

Sensing the other girl mellowing, Daphne told her her story, as usual Velma listened without interruption until she was finished.

"Wow, I messed up" she muttered, "I couldn't have had your situation any further wrong if I tried," She said to Daphne.

"Well, you wasn't to know," Daphne shrugged, "I don't think anyone could have guessed what went on behind closed doors. After what dad did to Ryan, I was very careful to toe the line so nobody would suspect anything was amiss so it's quite natural you assumed we had a loving relationship," she explained.

"Ryan?" Velma queried

"An ex boyfriend dad had hurt when I wouldn't do as he said" Daphne quickly clarified. "I know you want to help Fred, but he is an incredibly dangerous man, I'm not sure you realise what you'd be getting yourself into." Daphne exclaimed.

"Danger doesn't phase us," Fred grinned, speaking for all of them. "We have a lot of experience in dangerous situations don't we guys?"

Velma and Shaggy nodded sagely, they certainly had had some close calls.

"Well okay then," Daphne agreed reluctantly, she preferred to work alone but then again it was perhaps working alone that had put her in so much danger in the first place, perhaps teaming up with someone would do some good, although it was hardly ideal that those she was aligning herself with had been her captors until not very long ago but what was Daphne Blake's life if it wasn't complicated?

"I'll need some stuff from my apartment," she continued "my papers, photographs, all the evidence I have so far against my father...my gun" she added quietly.

"Gun?" Fred asked, eyebrows raised.

"For protection," Daphne shrugged, "I only ever kept it in my apartment though otherwise things might have turned out very differently last night" She said with a wink. "It's going to be difficult to get back in though, dad will have it watched like a hawk."

"No problem," Fred said confidently "right Shaggy?" He said looking to confirmation from his friend.

"No problem at all" The taller teen affirmed, "I'm yet to find an apartment that has troubled me yet."

"Wait.."Daphne said quickly catching on to what Shaggy was implying, "_You're _the infamous 'Cat- burglar of Coolsville?'" the incredulity was obvious in her tone of voice.

"The one and the same," Shaggy said, proudly at first, before realising it really wasn't something to be proud of.

"Wow, at the _Chronicle_, we always thought it HAD to be a woman," she mused aloud before dismissing it. "Well that's great but regardless you still have to be incredibly careful, you may be used to avoiding CCTV, cheap alarm systems and rubbish guard dogs but my dad's men won't be easy to fool."

"I'm sure we'll come up with something." Velma said clearly getting into the spirit now. She wouldn't admit it in front of them but this turn of events now was actually exciting to her. If there was one thing she loved more than anything, more than crime that while although satisfying didn't give her much of a buzz, was a mystery. Boy did she love a mystery, there wasn't much going on in Coolsville that satisfied this lust but she had a huge collection of mystery novels, she LOVED playing detective and this fascinating, intriguing girl was promising something incredibly exciting and epic, a scandal that would turn the little town of Coolsville on it's head. The kidnap plot had seemed exciting to plan but just seemed like a game, when it became a terrifying reality, it was beyond what any of them could handle, that phone call, she had never heard something so callous in her life, she had to admit she was ultimately relieved at how everything had turned out. This could give her a new sense of purpose in her life.

The four teens knew they were alone now, three of them had long since burned their bridges with the authorities and unless Daphne had watertight proof that would stand up beyond any doubt in court then she couldn't go to the police either, he was Coolsville's most powerful man by far, even then there was no telling what lengths he would go to to ensure his crimes remained hidden, disposing of his daughter didn't seem to infringe on his morals.

There was nobody Daphne could trust at the newspaper with her suspicions, her boss would have laughed her right out. There was only ever one person until now she had ever shared _anything _with, the only person who would ever slightly understand and that was Ethan. Ethan knew her suspicions but she had never shared the actual stuff she had found out, she trusted Ethan with her life though and knew if she needed him in the next few hours she could rely on him.

"I'll need to speak to Ethan," she said suddenly, "he's the only one that will understand."

"Ethan?" Fred said, desperately trying to undermine the sudden panicking jealousy he felt as she mentioned another guy's name so fondly.

"Yes, he's my older cousin" she replied, "his father died in the same accident that killed my mother, so we've had a strong bond."

Fred and the others nodded solemnly even though inside he couldn't deny the relief he felt that this guy she had spoken of with such warmth was only a relation. The way his feelings had developed for this girl frankly terrified him, he was utterly horrified at the ordeal he had put her through and felt a burning desire to put things right, all he wanted to do to this girl was to hold her and never let her go, not in a sinister way, he just wanted to protect her, the depth of his feelings confused him, but something had happened the moment he set his eyes on her, he knew he wanted to explore his feelings with her but not now, all that was right now was to help her, to help her seek justice for the terrible things her own father was responsible for.

"I know what that feels like" Shaggy spoke quietly, "losing a parent, for me it was only a few years ago, I can't imagine how difficult that must be at such a young age"

"Thanks" she said, "I can't remember much about my mother now in all honesty, it's just been me and my father for so long, he took mom's death hard, took down all her photos, I just have a small box of memories" She added sadly.

Shaggy gently put his hand on her shoulder in a silent show of support.

It was Fred who broke the uneasy silence, clearing his throat to speak. "I think we need to lay low for the rest of the day and plan our next move, we can't do anything until we're under the cover of darkness again so I suggest we crash at my apartment for the day and think about what we're going to do next."

He didn't get any opposition from the others and soon he was introducing the girls to his and Shaggy's comfortable abode. Daphne got showered as the three thought about the crazy past 24 hours and what was to come later. It was safe to say that the drama for these four teens and their dog was only just beginning though.


	8. Are those monsters?

Later that evening...

It was fair to say that this was one of the more stranger 24 hours in Shaggy's life so far. They had gone from one hare brained scheme to now helping the victim of that little plot in a far more ambitious plan to take down one of the most powerful men in Coolsville, Devon Blake, who it turned out is actually something of a psychopath who isn't adverse to harming his own daughter. Just when did his life get so goddamn complicated? Now, here he was breaking into their former hostage's flat to retrieve some incriminating evidence oh and a gun.

It was for the best he didn't stop to think about what he was doing because if he did he might just take himself and Scooby home and never come back out until this clearly freaky dream had passed because SURELY that's what it was.

True to Daphne's word, there were two heavies stationed by her door but getting in wasn't the problem for Shaggy, it was getting out. Dropping stealthily in from the fire escape he took in his surroundings, it was a fairly typical, obviously girly apartment with simple décor but it was the things that weren't obvious that were what he was looking for. Walking into the bedroom with just a dim glare of the flashlight for support, he fumbled across to the wardrobe, groping for the switch that Daphne assured would reveal her secret arsenal. A low whistle escaped his throat when he found what he was looking for, a panel sliding open and sitting on top of a pile of manila envelopes was the sleek and heavy pistol she had promised she owned. Very gingerly he took it in his hands, and slipped it carefully into his rucksack along with the manila envelopes and sealing the hidey hole shut again as quietly as he could. He padded over to her bathroom, all the time hardly daring to breathe in case the dangerous men outside her door heard him. He grabbed the bag she had prepared for the very same emergency of faking a new identity and got out of there very quickly, returning to the street the same way he had come in and scuttling around the corner to where the van where was hidden in the alley. Only once he was safely ensconced back inside did he allow himself a huge sigh of relief. He was very professional at breaking and entering undetected but never had the threat of being caught being any more dangerous than tonight, where far more than a jail sentence was potentially on the cards.

"Everything OK?" Daphne inquired from the front seat as Fred slid the van into gear.

"No problem at all," Shaggy said with more confidence than he had felt five minutes earlier, handing the rucksack over to Daphne.

"Thanks" she said, rifling through the contents quickly and seemingly satisfied everything she needed was here. Fred glanced across at her as she pulled out the gun and the ammo, turning it over carefully in her hands.

"Are you sure you know how to use that?" He asked her dubiously.

She blinked at him before quick as a flash, loading the gun with expert precision.

"I'll er take that as a yes" Fred commented, the awe clear in his voice.

She sighed, "I'm no expert marksman or anything but I taught myself how to use it should I ever need to" She explained as she thumbed through the rest of the envelope, taking out a handful of grainy photos. Shaggy who had been looking over her shoulder, did something of a double take when he clocked what was in the images.

"Zoinks! Are those..." he gulped, "monsters?"

"Ghosts, werewolves _and _vampires" she declared, to the obvious horror of the two boys.

"Not real ones" she clarified quickly, "but dad's genius idea to protect his identity I'm certain of it, have you ever heard of something so silly in all your life? Dressing up as some freak in a scary costume and mask to scare away people from infringing onto your crimes. The crazy thing is though, it's worked, even the police are pretending it's not happening ever since sweet old Daisy May phoned up to report 'Dracula' was unloading a crate at the docks. _The Chronicle_ was ordered to keep it quiet and patrols instead of being stepped up were ordered to be slowed after the 'wolfman' attacked an officer and he's been in a coma ever since, obviously that kind of thing just can't be hushed up and today was the day, Peter was running with the 'wolfman' photo that Ethan took."

"Wow Daphne that's just all...kinds of ….crazy" Shaggy offered.

"I don't have any proof that these movie monsters are really my dad and his cronies but come on, the wolf man AND Dracula? Here in Coolsville? It's just so ludicrous." She exclaimed.

"It does seem quite ingenious in a way though," Fred commented as he drove to the apartment he and Shaggy shared. " I'm surprised no one has thought of doing it before actually, even police will stay away if they really believe that vampires and werewolves are behind the crimes. They're pretty convincing costumes too, are you sure they're not real?" He added with a grin. "The old school horror movie fest has only just finished, Dracula could have come to life." He mocked.

Daphne punched him lightly on the arm as they pulled up outside. She pushed the gun and documents back into the wallet and pulled her hood up to hide her distinctive red locks as they got out the van. Inside, Velma was waiting with Scooby, seated on the sofa, a troubled expression on her face. Daphne at first suspected it was just worry about Shaggy but even the appearance of the tall teen did little to placate her feelings.

Fred sensed it immediately, trouble was in the air. Daphne's hand tightened a little on the gun, fearing her dad may walk out at any minute, having figured it all out but it was clear they were in no immediate danger at least.

Instead, the bespectacled brunette simply held out the remote to Daphne and said somberly "you need to see this."

Worry gnawed at Daphne as she wordlessly took the remote and pressed the on button. Immediately a photo of herself appeared on the screen, followed by that of her father.

Without even thinking, Fred was behind her in an instant, catching her as her legs gave way in shock. The gang listened in shock to the lies playing out on screen as a pretty newsreader summarized the big breaking story.

"Devon Blake was facing more heartache tonight as it was revealed his only daughter Daphne is missing, presumed dead. We can reveal the shocking development came about after Mr Blake received a call earlier today claiming his daughter had been abducted. We spoke to a clearly distraught Devon just a few minutes ago."

"They said, they said, they had her" he sobbed "They said they had my princess and she would die unless I paid them money, I'm sorry I can't talk about this any longer" he said, walking away from the baying mob of reporters.

"Mr Blake will take no more questions" The PR man said, stepping neatly into his place. "We would request that you respect his privacy at this clearly difficult time"

Daphne and the others continued to watch in shock as the newsreader continued "It is unclear just what has lead to this tragic turn of events, however our sources believe Miss Blake to have died as a result of a botched ransom and rescue attempt. It is also unclear whether a body has indeed been recovered."

Shaggy switched the screen off as Fred supported a shocked Daphne. "He finally did it" she murmured "he finally killed me". Her anger started to bubble "how could he stand there and_ lie _and pretend that he actually gives a damn? How could he do that? You saw the crocodile tears right?" She visibly shook as she spoke and Fred held her tighter.

For Fred, it was absolutely shocking, Daphne had told them what her father was like, the facade he put on but he didn't really believe it until now, he knew his true colors, had heard them in that fateful phone call but didn't believe he could really have such a wicked fake personality. He had got his disguise wrong clearly Jekyll and Hyde was a better fit for the snake that was Devon Blake. In front of the nation's media he had got up and claimed his daughter was dead and cried crocodile tears, while all the time knowing the truth. The fact that Fred , Velma and Shaggy played a strong part in this completely ate away at Fred, they had given him a reason to press ahead with his wicked plans. The message he sent out to Daphne knowing she would see this, was clear, she was as good as dead now. He would see clear that the job would be complete.

Velma who had stayed silent while the horror report had played, said quietly "I'm sorry Daphne, it gets worse. That report was recorded an hour or so ago, since then there have been new... developments" She was clearly filled with anguish and didn't want to continue but willed herself to, tears filling in her eyes at the dreadful news she was about to deliver. "I'm so sorry but they, they found a body" she barely whispered.

"Wh..a..tt?" Daphne's voice cracked and her eyes widened in horror. "I, I don't understand...what are you saying?!" She said, jumping up suddenly and alarmingly out of Fred's arms and turning on poor Velma.

"I'm sorry" Velma repeated again, a single tear, streaking her face. "A girrrrlll" She stammered "he killed a girl."

"NO!" Daphne cried in disbelief, "no, no, this can't be, he WOULDN'T" she almost screamed.

It was Velma who comforted her, all her previous reservations about this girl dissolving instantly. "It's true, I'm so sorry honey" She said cradling the distraught girl. "They think she is you...they found her in the desert."

Fred felt sick to the pit of his stomach, and in that instant had never ever hated someone with every fibre of his being like Devon Blake. He had told the world his daughter was dead and then to continue the lie, had actually gone out and KILLED some innocent girl in her place. It was just too horrifying for words.

"He can't get away with this" Daphne resolved in an instant, stalking straight to her bag, with just one intention in her mind, getting her gun. Fred and Shaggy blocked her immediately urging her to see sense.

"Get out of my way Fred!" She screamed attempting to push him out of the way, but failing miserable as he grasped her arms gently but firmly.

"You're not doing this Daphne, not like this" Fred said firmly.

"He KILLED SOMEONE!" She cried "Because he couldn't get to me HE KILLED SOMEONE! He cannot get away with this"

"He won't" Fred assured, "I promise you he won't, we'll get him, we'll _all_ help you get him but properly. Not like this, you'll only end up regretting it and you'll be no better than him."

She continued to fight them for a few more futile seconds but it became clear the boys were not budging and she reluctantly let her red mist disappear despite what her heart was telling her, her head was telling her they were absolutely right and this was not the way. She stopped pushing them, letting them know she wasn't going to fight them any longer. She found herself melting against Fred's chest. "What can we do?"

"We press ahead with our investigation as planned, we get close and we get the evidence that will nail this bastard" Fred replied venomously. "Only now we'll have to be even more careful, the world believes you're dead, we'll have to keep it that way. We'll unmask those monsters Daphne don't you worry I give you my word. We'll get justice for that poor girl."

"It's completely ironic that they chose to have monster masks, to further hide behind the man he really is" She shook her head, "I knew he was evil, I knew he was capable of evil things but until now, never knew how far he would go. He's a deeply dangerous sadistic man, I'm completely ashamed to say he's my father."

The three continued to chat whilst she was in the bathroom, when she emerged, she looked significantly different to fool anyone that passed her at a glance. She had cut her long hair bluntly to just above her shoulders and dyed her luscious red hair jet black. She had also used contact lens to disguise her pretty blue eyes. It was a stark change but it was necessary if they were to accomplish what they wanted to accomplish, if someone was to reveal she was alive it would put them all in danger. But there was one person she wanted to know the truth.

"Ethan." She said "Ethan HAS to know I'm alive, it will kill him to think I'm dead, I'm all he has!" She realised in a panic.

Fred wasn't happy about Daphne putting herself in danger by including someone else in the truth but reluctantly agreed. Velma would contact him as an anonymous source with news about Daphne's 'murder' and then Daphne would be presented to him and the truth would be known. There was no issue about him being trustworthy as her oldest friend she trusted him with her life but no one could have foreseen the horrifying consequences this decision was to have nor the shocking truths that would eventually be revealed.


	9. Where is Daphne Blake?

Part 9

The anonymous call to Ethan was awkward to say the least, Velma pointedly refused to give any details to the clearly distraught young man on the phone, she would only say she had information regarding the murder and that it involved Devon Blake. Naturally, with Daphne having shared some of her suspicions about her father and Ethan's uncle with him, his curiosity was still piqued by the mysterious woman's claims and so he had reluctantly agreed to her proposal for a clandestine meeting.

Fred, Velma and Daphne waited patiently in the warehouse, Daphne disappeared into the shadows when they heard his car pull up outside. 25 year old Ethan Dillon entered the warehouse, he was tall, with sandy brown hair, dressed in a leather jacket and jeans. He walked cautiously inside to where two shadowy figures were standing, as he got closer he could see one was male and one was female, presumably the woman who had made the call.

"Thank you to agreeing to this meeting," she greeted him stepping out of the shadows, flanked immediately by an athletic blond boy.

"Who the hell are you and what is this about?" Ethan demanded.

"Who we are, is not important. What we have to tell you, is on the other hand ,of grave importance," the boy explained mysteriously.

"The death of that girl," Velma said, not pausing for an invitation to continue "was caused by your uncle Devon Blake."

Ethan's eye's bulged a little as he took in the statement. "What?! No! Are you crazy, he wouldn't kill his own daughter!"

"It's true Ethan, and you know it, you know deep down inside what he's capable of." Fred added.

"Who ARE you?!" Ethan demanded, "how do you know anything about me?"

"Again," Velma stated calmly "who we are is not of import..."

"Bullshit it isn't!" Ethan cried "Now you tell me who the hell you are RIGHT NOW!" he said, reaching into his jacket and producing a gleaming blade.

Fred and Velma, backed away, hands up as Ethan lunged forward.

"Ethan NO!" a familiar voice cried out from behind them.

On hearing the voice, Ethan immediately dropped the blade in shock, "no, no it can't be..." he whispered, but as he whirled around slowly, he saw it was indeed true, "Daphne?" he croaked.

The woman stepping out of the shadows didn't look like his beautiful cousin at first, her hair was all wrong and the clothes she wouldn't be seen dead in normally but it took a few short moments to realise it really was her. There was no time to question how could this be, he just gratefully accepted her into his arms.

"Oh god Daphne," he breathed as the strangers looked on, "you're alive!" tears glistened on his face at the relief, when they got the call about the kidnap and murder, he had pretty much just collapsed in his apartment and cried all day, she meant the world to him and he couldn't imagine life without her and then this mysterious woman had called with an anonymous tip and despite his scepticism he knew he had to go meet her. "What happened?!" he cried, still holding onto her for dear life, "who ARE these people?" he indicated the boy and girl stood awkwardly watching their reunion.

"Ethan," Daphne sighed "there is a lot to explain, it's probably best that I start at the very beginning."

Daphne went onto explain all the details of what happened last night and the events so far that day starting with the abduction and culminating in Devon murdering the innocent girl. For the most part he had listened in silent disbelief but on explaining 'that in actual fact Ethan these people are the one's who kidnapped me last night' had him leaping up to confront Fred in anger.

"You heartless bastard!" he seethed. "What kind of man are you!" he challenged the blond angrily.

Fred stood his ground well, despite being younger, he more than matched Ethan in stature.

"Look man I know I made a HUGE mistake!" Fred said attempting to placate the furious older man "but I know that and I'm going to make amends."

"Oh you are huh! I'll show you how to make amends" Ethan said, snatching out his cell phone

"No!" Daphne cried, knocking the cell out of his hand, "he's helping me Ethan! They all are!"

"Don't be stupid Daph," Ethan chastised his cousin. "How do you know they're not still working with Devon and have been all along?"

"I trust them," Daphne said defiantly "And if I do you should too," she added earnestly.

Ethan couldn't argue with her but it didn't mean he had to like it, taking an instant dislike to the pair.

"Okay" he relented reluctantly, "they're helping you, what are you going to do next?"

"Nobody can know I'm alive" she insisted. "Obviously Dad knows I'm not really dead and he'll come looking but for now the town has to believe I'm dead so we can get what we need to take them down."

"I still can't get my head around all this Daphne, we always knew he was up to no good, but murder? That's too far even for him surely?" Ethan said, the doubt clear in his voice.

She nodded her head sadly, "neither did I until now, I still can't if I'm honest."

"So who is she? They said they were planning on making a formal identification tomorrow, how can they do that if it's clearly not you?"

"Never underestimate my dad" Daphne said wryly, "if he needs to persuade everyone that is me in the morgue, he will do." She shuddered. "That poor girl, I wonder who she was?"

Nobody wanted to answer her question that hung in the air, it was too horrifying to comprehend.

An uneasy silence formed with no one quite knowing what to say next, Ethan was still struggling to take it all in, half an hour ago he was mourning the death of his cousin, now he learned that she was alive but in actual fact another innocent girl had been killed in her place and although his cousin was OK now she HAD been in peril when she was kidnapped by the same people she was now colluding with. It gave him a headache just to think about it all, he had always thought of Coolsville as a quiet place where nothing much happened but now they had scandal, murder and even werewolves! The reporter in him should have been thrilled by this turn of events but it was heartbreakingly close to home, the man at the centre of all this was his uncle, who until recently he had considered himself close to, having looked after him when there was no one else, when his father had died and having never known his mother.

"I think the best thing to do" Daphne said, breaking the silence, "is to 'go dark' for a day at least, we keep our heads down," she said to Fred and Velma.

"Ethan, you need to continue our investigation, you will have been given compassionate leave for 'my death'" she said grimly, "so just work from home. It's probably best not to meet up again in person in case you are followed, Velma can you set up a secure line to line contact so we can keep in touch but privately?"

"Not a problem," she affirmed.

Ethan was not at all happy about leaving Daphne with these strangers but she seemed to trust them and he would just have to accept that, privately he vowed to keep a firm eye on them from afar. He watched vaguely fascinated as the girl, Velma, pushed a load of buttons on his cell at speed, eyes glued to screen before handing it back to him just as rapidly.

"What did you do?" He asked her.

"Oh I just configured the settings to make it untraceable, there's some little tricks here and there that everyone could learn with some time."

"Uh huh," he nodded in amazement before snapping back to attention. "Right, well I'll be in touch" he said, hugging Daphne goodbye. "You stay safe this time 'cuz" he said to her warmly and slightly teasingly, knowing her knack for getting into trouble. He gave her one last embrace and cast a further dubious look at her new companions before striding away.

Daphne watched Ethan vanish from sight, with Fred and Velma by her side. She knew she was in a very strange situation, she hadn't forgotten the terrifying scene these two and their friend had put her in, the terror she had felt when Velma had pointed the gun at her, the sheer panic when Fred had crushed her to him and took away her oxygen, the bewilderment as she had tried to ascertain why they had kidnapped her. She hadn't forgotten all that, she certainly wasn't 'BFF's' with them all of a sudden but there was something about these people, a kindred spirit feeling almost with Shaggy, a begrudging respect for someone as intelligent as Velma and then there was Fred. She couldn't help but feel they were just meant to be, not as a couple but as a foursome, like it was some kind of destiny, if that was true, it sure as hell was the most MESSED UP version of destiny fulfilled ever but she just felt strongly that somehow this little group of theirs was meant to be. She didn't know 'what' or 'why' but she felt safe and comfortable with these people. Well as safe and comfortable as one could feel with people who had abducted her but hey everyone makes mistakes, right? She wasn't sure that Ethan would agree.

Ethan walked the short distance back to his car, and stuffed his cell phone on the seat next to him, he tucked the blade back into its compartment in the glove-box, not willing to get rid of it just yet, there was no telling when he might need it. He drove back into town in quiet contemplation, they had to prove beyond any doubt that Devon was guilty.

He was going to have to get close to the crime scene, and see if anything matched the scenes of the other crimes where the 'monsters' had been spotted. He had planned to finally get the photos to his editor today, he and Daphne were going to go together, theorising that perhaps it would be more plausible with two of them but he knew even with the eyewitnesses, he knew it was a crazy story to believe.

His apartment was in darkness when he returned, jogging up the stairs two at a time. He eased the door open and stepped inside, sensing immediately that something was very wrong. He didn't even have time to react before the door slammed shut, a bag was placed over his head and he was tackled to the ground. He hit the floor hard, pain immediately shooting through him as something knelt on him. A light went on and the bag was ripped off his head, his natural reaction was to shout out, but an arm instantly blocked his windpipe, crushing his air supply. Panic set in pretty rapidly and his eyes darted, first focussing on the two men in garish Halloween werewolf masks, that seemed intent on terrorising him, before settling on the even more alarming sight of the gleaming metal gun one of them possessed and was aiming as a weapon near his head. He thrashed wildly, panicking as he felt himself slipping away from lack of oxygen, and then mercilessly the pressure eased but not completely. The first man hissed in his ear "Don't. Fucking. Make. A. Sound". He didn't even have to brandish the gun, the threat was obvious, the arm was moved and Ethan gasped for breath, wheezing on the floor. The two men watched him without any concern before Werewolf 1 knelt down and spoke.

"Now this is how it's going to work pretty boy. I ask a question, I don't like what I hear, he hurts you BADLY" he said emphasising his partner.

Ethan nodded terrified.

"Good boy," the man mocked, enjoying the fear he was putting into the boy. "Where have you been tonight?"

"Out," Ethan replied, earning a swift kick in the ribs.

"Try HARDER," the man said."Where did you go?"

"To see friends," Ethan spat out.

"Where is Daphne Blake?" The man said.

Ethan had the intelligence to look shocked. "She's dead"

The two men exchanged a look.

"You don't seem pretty cut up for someone who's close relative has died," the second observed.

"Well, I'm somewhat still in shock, we can't all cry on demand." He said with what he hoped was strong bluster.

"Nice try kid," The first leered "but you know as well as I do that she is _not _dead."

Ethan painted a neutral expression on his face. "I don't understand what you're saying."

"Aw now I could almost believe you," the man said, "If I didn't know you were lying through your fucking teeth!" As he said 'teeth', his fist connected solidly with Ethan's face, who recoiled.

"Now we'll try again and I'm going to spell it out nice and slowly so there's no misunderstanding " .She"

Bravado got the better of Ethan and his desire to protect Daphne at all costs. "She's at the morgue," He said defiantly. Unsurprisingly, his reply earned him another fist in the face and he could feel the blood running down into his mouth.

"One last chance kid, and then things get really ugly, I'm going to ask you nicely – Where is Daphne Blake?"

Ethan forced himself to smile "Fuck You"

Patience all gone, he knew he had pushed them too far, he knew this as the barrel of the gun came flying at the side of his face at such speed he never even got to hear the reply to his witty retort, his world had already gone black.

"Wrong answer".

TO BE CONTINUED - Bit of a plot advancement chapter this one, please do review, I don't get chance to update as often as I'd like but try to keep it moving, I have it all mapped out, just a case of having the time to write it!


	10. Tall, dark and creepy?

Immediately after Ethan had gone, and they had reunited with Shaggy and Scooby Doo, Fred had the bright idea to 'split up' because 'they could cover more ground that way'. Shaggy personally thought it was better that they stuck together for protection but once Fred had an idea in his head that was that, Shaggy had learnt to accept it and so that was why he found himself and Scooby Doo down at the Coolsville docks in the dead of the night, 'looking for clues'.

He had no idea what 'clue' he was supposed to be looking for but Velma had said just to keep an eye out for 'something suspicious'. Shaggy presumed that meant some creep dressed as Dracula and his buddies but that wasn't really the kind of clue he wanted to find. He poked around the storage containers hoping to find nothing. Instead, he found a container full of food, bedding, and newspapers, clearly signs of somebody living down here. He whipped out his cell phone, taking a picture to send to Velma, the whole place gave him the creeps, and Scooby was clinging to him like the cowardly pooch he was. He was just getting ready to give up and head back to the others when he heard the unmistakeable sound of footprints. Diving behind some crates and urging Scooby to be quiet he hardly dared look up. When he did he could scarcely believe what he was seeing. There, strolling across the boards was to all intent and purposes – Dracula. Scooby cowered down beside him whilst Shaggy couldn't take his eyes off the scene. Looking like something straight out of a 'B Movie' horror marathon, he swept along, his cape fluttering majestically behind him, chiselled fangs and pale skin glistening in the moonlight before disappearing around a corner and out of sight. Shaggy stayed in position for what felt like hours later, terrified that he would return, Scooby frozen at his feet before the cold biting air started to reach him once again and he snapped to his senses, cautiously returning to their well hidden van.

At first he tried to rationalise it maybe it was the paranoia of all the circumstances recently that had got to him but he knew what he had seen. Scooby's frozen in fear face confirmed he had seen it too.

Unconsciously, he reached for his cell "Hello, Freddy? You said to call if I saw anything suspicious Well, does tall, dark and creepy count?"

Fred, Daphne and Velma had just successfully broken into the Coolsville library when Shaggy called. "You actually saw Dracula?" Despite the evidence of Daphne's photos, Fred was still more than incredulous about the whole little caper.

"I told you so" Daphne murmured quietly as she and Velma continued to search the archives. Daphne hadn't found anything and though Velma professed neither did she, it was clear something had troubled her, she had gone very quiet in the last five minutes.

Daphne shared all the evidence they had found on Dracula and the Wolfman so far whilst also looking at the crimes committed recently, the robberies, the missing drug shipments. Either the police were deeply stupid in this town (which she certainly had long suspected to be fair) or they were really turning a blind eye because it was obvious to anyone with intelligence that the two were linked.

They had started to gather an impressive little arsenal of evidence between them and hopefully with Ethan's help they could begin to really start going somewhere with it all, for the first time in a long time Daphne began to feel really hopeful and positive.

Unfortunately for Ethan, there wasn't much for him to feel hopeful and positive about right at this moment. He had woke with a severe pounding to his head and had wondered if perhaps he had fallen out of bed again but then he felt the coppery taste of blood around his mouth and someone was waking him by rudely throwing a cold bucket of water at his face.

"Wakey wakey! Rise and Shine Ethan!" A vaguely familiar voice had yelled in his ear. He jolted awake, startled to find his movement severely restricted. Not only that but something was fixed tightly in his mouth preventing him from uttering a mere syllable. Confusion and panic flooded through him as he realised that his wrists were shackled to a chair with metal cuffs, his bare feet padlocked to the floor. He could feel a severe pain on the side of his face and suddenly it all came back to him – Daphne dying but not really dying, those weird people she had made friends with and her crazy suspicions about...his eyes suddenly focussed to the figure in front of him and his eyes widened a little...Uncle Devon.

In that moment seeing his uncle grin at him flanked by the two 'werewolves' from his apartment, he knew it was all true, his uncle WAS a criminal, he was also probably a ruthless killer and a quick glance at the knife in his hand showed Ethan he was willing to do whatever it takes. It all became obvious to Ethan then why he was here, Devon wanted Daphne, Ethan knew the truth about Daphne and Devon was going to get his daughter's whereabouts from him through any method necessary. This should have terrified Ethan but strangely all it did was tighten his resolve, he was going to protect his cousin at all costs, of course he was scared for his life, scared of what they might do to him, but no matter what, no matter how much they hurt him, crushed his spirit, his will would remain, they weren't getting Daphne from him, he would keep her whereabouts secret even if it killed him. As Devon and his cronies advanced towards him, knife in hand, he swallowed hard, _they will not break me, they will not break me_. Ethan's resolve was going to have to be to rock solid to survive. Devon Blake was going to stop at nothing to erase his daughter. Permanently.

When Shaggy met up with Fred and the girls at Shaggy's apartment an hour or so later, the gangly teen was still white as a sheet and in a state of disbelief at what he had seen. As for Scooby Doo if it was possible for a dog to look TERRIFIED, the Great Dane was certainly demonstrating it, visibly shaking and his teeth chattering together in comedic style. The pair of them stood in the doorway not really moving until Fred waved a hand in front of Shaggy's face.

"Hello? Earth to Shaggy!"

Fred, using the nickname Velma had given him seemed to snap him out of his mini trance. "Oh, hey guys."

"Well?" Velma said irritably, holding out her palm for the evidence.

"Oh! Right." Shaggy said startled, before fumbling in his pockets for the cell. "This is what Scooby and I found."

Velma thumbed through the digital pictures of the secret bunker Shaggy had found. "Interesting, very interesting, this certainly looks like it might have been the base for some of Devon's going's on. What exactly was 'Dracula' doing when you saw him?"

Shaggy blinked at Velma "What was he doing?"

"Yes, what what was he up to? You did follow him right?"

"Follow a murdering vampire?! Are you crazy Velma?!" Scooby barked in approval.

"He's not really a vampire," Daphne said with a slight smile. "You do know that?"

"You didn't know he was a murdering psychopath until yesterday to be fair Daphne so how would you know if he WAS a vampire too?" Shaggy asked reasonably.

"Because he can walk in the da...Oh never mind!" Daphne said realising it was pointless justifying it to Shaggy. "Vampire or not, he needs stopping."

"We all agree on that," Fred said "but I have to say I'm intrigued Shaggy, what did he look like?"

Shaggy rolled his eyes "For gods sake Fred, I've been through this and I don't particularly like talking about it. He had a pale white face, really sharp teeth, a cape, basically he was Dracula!"

"Shame you couldn't have got a really close up picture though!" Fred commented.

"Sure, next time I see him I'll be sure to be ask him to pose for a snap on Facebook!" He snapped.

Velma sensing the growing tension in the room, quickly cut in. "Well it's useless trying to do any more tonight without sleep, so I'm going to head home," she announced loudly.

"Good idea Velma!" Fred said grateful for the interruption, "we should probably all turn in. Daphne, you can sleep in my bed, I will sleep on the couch."

"Okay, well good night" Velma called to the trio before slipping away.

Fred collected some pillows and bedding and set about making the couch comfortable, Shaggy, still not having recovered from the outrageous set of events, retired to his room, Scooby at his heels, leaving just Fred and Daphne alone.

"Thank you," she said quietly.

"I couldn't let you sleep on the couch," Fred said with a grin.

"I wasn't talking about the bed, I mean for everything you are doing," she clarified.

"I'm uncomfortable with you thanking me" Fred admitted, "after what I did..."

Daphne cut him off by giving his hand a little squeeze, "we HAVE to try and get past that now" she said, not knowing truly in her heart if she could do that. "Good night Fred," she said softly, retreating into his room. As she lay down on the unfamiliar bed and closed her eyes she knew sleep wouldn't come to her any time soon.

Meanwhile, across town, unbeknown to Daphne, her cousin was far from sleep also and close to breakpoint. Devon was showing little mercy for the boy he once had looked fondly on as his own and spent the last couple of hours trying out various forms of torture in an effort to get what he wanted from him. Currently, Devon had Ethan suspended from the ceiling by metal cuffs, his torso was bloodied and bruised and his face was a mess. Devon certainly had not been shy about using his fists on the boy before moving onto other 'implements' but Ethan, much to Devon's frustration, had still not cracked.

"I have to say you impress me Ethan, you have held out much better than I thought you would and your loyalty really is something to be admired."

"Well that's something you know little about it isn't it?" Ethan spat out, whilst bracing himself for the next blow.

"You really must care about her," Devon told him conversationally whilst casually running his hand along a belt. Ethan couldn't see very well as one eye was swollen but he knew what was coming. With a sudden "THWACK!" the belt whipped through the air, making harsh and swift contact with Ethan's belly. It was hardly the first time that he had been whipped and this time he could barely suppress his anguished cry, his body stinging with the pain. "AHHHH!"

"Oh, that's better!" Devon grinned. "Now we might finally be getting somewhere."

He hit him again and again, each stroke harder, with more force behind the blow. Ethan's whole body shook with the severity of the strikes and tears sprung to his eyes but he wouldn't give up. His words trembled as he spoke them but he faced Devon, steely-eyed. "I,I,I won't tellllll youuuu."

Angered, Devon ploughed his fist into his face once more, sending Ethan's head spinning back from the force.

"Is she really worth dying over Ethan! You need to come to your senses boy. All you have to do is tell me where she is and all this pain will stop and I'll let you go."

Ethan spat blood out, hate burning in his eyes. "You think I can trust you, after all this. You'll just kill me anyway. Just like you did to that other girl."

Devon laughed "What other girl? That whore? Boy, I don't get my hands dirty."

Ethan's whole body was wracked with pain, he had tried to be brave, really he had, he had taken so many blows, his face, his stomach, his back. He had been kicked and punched and he didn't know how much more he could take, not to mention the strain of being suspended by his wrists for so long was making him incredibly tired and Devon sensed it. He sensed his prisoner's resolve was starting to weaken. At first, bravado ensured he barely flinched from the blows but soon the wincing began and the eyes watered and once the welts on his back appeared, finally, finally he started to cry out, unable to hold it in any longer. Devon knew he wasn't far away from cracking and needed to step it up a notch. Ethan eyed him suspiciously as he retrieved something from the table. His worst fears were realised when he saw the lick of the flame. Devon saw it, that unmistakable flash of genuine fear on his face, all his earlier bravado vanished and Devon loved it. Everyone had their limits and he knew exactly what Ethan's was. He played with the flame watching it flicker and burn, enjoying the pure unadulterated terror it elicited from Ethan.

Shaggy had just got Scooby Doo settled down into his doggy bed and pulled the covers around himself when his cell phone started to vibrate noisily on his bedside. Irritated at first, he softened when realising the caller was Velma, not wanting to wake Fred, he spoke softly.

"Hey"

"Hey" she replied equally as soft.

"What's up?" Shaggy asked.

"I just..." Velma seemed to struggle for the right words, pausing for an eternity "needed to talk" she eventually decided on firmly. "This whole thing, it's just a big mess isn't it?"

"Sure is," Shaggy agreed, "I don't know why I let Fred talk me into this now, this is SO messed up, I mean murder and vampires? I thought the kidnapping was bad enough but this is just five shades of crazy now. I feel absolutely TERRIBLE for what we did to Daphne, appalled even but I'm starting to think we should have just walked away like we planned to, sure we didn't get the money but we could still have started new lives, away from this mess."

"I know" Velma said "and now I'm scared. Scared of what we've gotten ourselves into, we're just kids, how can we take on Coolsville's equivalent of Don Corleone?"

It was a sobering experience for Shaggy to hear Velma confess she was scared. In all the years he had known her, he knew her to be intelligent, mysterious, slightly cold but never frightened, she always seemed so calm and confident, it was further confirmation for Shaggy that despite knowing they were doing good, it could turn out to be the most costly mistake of their lives. He knew he was supposed to reassure her but knew there was no bullshitting Velma Dinkley so he was deeply honest.

"I'm scared too, more scared than I've ever been in my life but at the same time I just think..." Now it was Shaggy's turn to be stuck for words. Luckily, Velma was on the same wavelength.

"we're supposed to do this?" She supplied, knowing instantly that Shaggy felt the same way, it was the strangest thing.

"Yes!" Shaggy said, almost forgetting to be quiet "it's just the strangest thing. Even when I was at the docks and 'Dracula' appeared and I was scared out of MY FREAKING MIND there was this really odd sense that I was 'supposed' to be there and see him but that's crazy right?"

"Maybe, but if you believe in destiny, maybe we were meant to find this girl, to help her? I know it sounds ridiculous Shaggy but everytime I think about running away and believe me over the last 48 hours I've strongly considered it but something, somewhere lures me back."

Shaggy had never heard such raw honesty from Velma and he had to admit he found the conversation so comforting. Sure, he could talk to Freddy but knew it was Velma now who he could spill his darkest secrets to, she got him in a way his best friend couldn't, the conversation left him with a new sense of purpose.

"Thank you," he said sincerely, "I really needed that, you've helped me get my head sorted"

"No problem" she replied "see you tomorrow?"

"Yeh, good night Velma"

"Good night Shaggy"

Shaggy placed the phone gently back onto the beside, and settled under the covers again, getting to sleep would still prove difficult but the burden on his mind had certainly eased a little now.

For poor Ethan though, his nightmare was continuing at a brutal pace. He had taken the beatings as bravely as he could, but as soon as Devon brought out the lighter, menacingly holding it close to his skin, he began to really panic for the first time, thrashing against his bonds, trying to move away but unable to move barely an inch.

"Please Devon! Please" he pleaded "Please, please don't do that!"

"Oh, what's the matter Ethan!" Devon mocked, delighted. "Where's all that bravado and bluster gone now eh!"

"You know, you know" Ethan quivered in terror "you know what happened!"

"Yes, yes I suppose I do" Devon said wistfully, a smile playing on his lips.

Ethan was 13 when it happened, when the explosion tore through his home, how he lay in searing pain for what felt like hours, feeling the heat on his face, waiting for the flames to engulf him. Until Devon came and swept him to safety, he never had chance to question then, why it had happened, in the months after the investigation, nobody was brought to justice for the explosion, the marshals tried to claim it was a faulty boiler, that it was impossible to tell how the fire began, Ethan never bought that but never understood until now why anyone would want to kill him.

"It was you," he said, the realisation slamming into him as harsh and quickly as any of the blows that Devon had dealt in the last hour.

"Well yes but not in the way you think," Devon admitted, feeling Ethan's hatred bore into him. "I didn't try to kill you that night, I saved you, remember?"

"I remember," Ethan said quietly, "it wasn't me they were trying to hurt was it? It was you"

"Got it in one kid."

Ethan scowled,"I nearly died! You were damn lucky that Daphne was out that night or SHE could have died!"

"More like unlucky," Devon mused to Ethan's disgust, "It could have saved me a lot of trouble."

"How can you talk like that Devon?!" Ethan cried incomprehensibly "How can you talk like that about your own daughter?!"

"Oh you have no idea Ethan, none at all!" Devon suddenly spat out angrily. "Now I am done playing games! You WILL tell me something I want to know or so help me god Ethan I will kill you in the most horrific way imaginable, I'll make it long and painful and you will suffer greatly. I will burn every last part of your flesh until there is nothing left!" Devon stalked to the table picking up a blow torch, leaving Ethan in no doubt he would carry out his terrifying threat, the expression in his eyes was inhumane.

Ethan knew that he had little choice but to comply now, though he knew he could tell Devon the truth about what he knew and still be killed he HAD to take the chance that Devon might be good to his word and let him go, after all he did care for him once perhaps he could show that one last bit of compassion for his brother's son. Ethan hated himself for his weakness in this moment but he just could not take any more. "You'll make it stop?" he asked in a pitiful whisper.

"You have my word Ethan, that if you tell me what I want to know, I won't lay another finger on you."

His word, that's all Ethan had, it would have to be enough. _I'm sorry Daphne_ he thought. What he was about to say would not directly lead to her he knew but eventually if Devon put the pieces together he could find her, Ethan could only hope he would be around to help her.

"So you're ready to talk?"

Ethan nodded wearily.

"Excellent!" Devon enthused, unfurling the wires that held Ethan suspended from the ceiling, who plummeted to the floor in an ungainly heap, hands still manacled.

Ethan struggled to get up on his knees, "I can't tell you where she is," he started then curled up to protect himself as Devon sought to kick him. "WAIT!" he cried, "I don't know where she is now honestly I don't!" The panic in his voice showed Devon he was telling the truth, he didn't know where she was, Devon could feel his frustrations rising, Ethan was his last play, he knew he had met her but he obviously wasn't privy to her plans like he had thought.

"You're trying my patience!" Devon said exasperated,

"But I do know something!" Ethan said desperately "I know who she's with! I know who kidnapped her."

Now Ethan had got his attention alright, "you're telling me she's WORKING with the people who kidnapped her?" He laughed incredulously.

"I couldn't believe it either," Ethan said almost in agreement with him, "but they're just kids, 3 of them, about her age."

Devon struggled to hide his shock, when he had got that phone call he thought one of his many rivals had snatched her but then they did ask for money...not one of his enemies would have demanded a ransom, they would only have taken her for revenge, so it did make sense but...what was this Stockholm Syndrome -esque twist about?

"So she's working with them?" he clarified. "Of her own free will?"

"Her own free will" Ethan confirmed, with unmistakable disgust on his face. "If you ask me, it's the boy, he has some kind of hold over her."

_Ah! _Devon thought _a boy! there always has to be a boy_. Her allegiance made more sense now. _Blinded by love._

"So who he is? Who are these kids?"

Ethan frowned ,suddenly forgetting the names of those he was introduced to.

"The girl," he said, "real clever, she had a funny name though, Vera, Verity..."

"Velma?" Devon offered.

"Yes Velma, that's it, you know her?" Ethan said surprised.

"Not exactly, but I know of her and her 'special talents'...now this boy..." Devon pressed.

"Fred" Ethan said without hesitation. "His name was Fred"

_Fred _Devon mused, vowing to track him and his friends down, if he couldn't find _her_ than finding these kids could very well be the next best thing.

"Tell me everything you know about this Fred" Devon demanded and "What of this third kid?"

Ethan described Fred to him, knowing he was betraying Daphne but hoping it would take time to track the elusive teenagers despite his information. "I never met the third" he admitted "I know he had a dog though from what Daphne told me, he looked kind of like a stoner, she said, bit of a beatnik"

Devon smiled, finally Ethan had proven to be useful, "thank you" he said sounding almost grateful.

Ethan felt disgusted with himself, he wasn't proud of what he'd done.

Devon beckoned his lackey's back in who manhandled the already very weak Ethan to his feet.

"Get rid of him" Devon said without emotion.

Ethan looked up in despair from between the two goons "What?! No! You promised!"

"I said _ I _wouldn't hurt you...I didn't say anything about anyone else..."

"You bastard" Ethan cried, knowing his fate was sealed now "what happened to you?!"

Devon chose to ignore the tortured cries of his nephew as he was dragged from the room, knowing he would never see him again. There was a time he loved that boy as his own but now, well now he couldn't afford to dwell on the past. He shut the door to drown out his screams and focus on his new plans; finding these meddling kids who had unknowingly now become his enemy, it was time to put a few calls in.


	11. Consider yourself watched

A.N. Huge delay I know, life just gets in the way, I really want to get this finished though, have added two more chapters today and another two to follow soon.

Part 11 Consider Yourself Watched

Daphne was starting to get worried, it was now nearly dawn and still Ethan had not been in touch as he had promised. She had stayed the night at Fred and Shaggy's apartment, sleeping in Fred's bed after he had gallantly volunteered to sleep on the couch. Of course sleeping had been something of a luxury, given all the events of the past couple of days, she had spent most of the night lying awake her head spinning with the many mixed up thoughts that flooded her mind, not least sleeping in the bed of the man she just couldn't get out of her mind. She rose quickly and crept to the bathroom, barely recognising herself in the mirror with the coloured contacts and the black short hair. Her face betrayed her lack of sleep but she had been far too stressed to rectify it. The town believed she was dead, her work colleagues, her friends, acquaintances at the gym, all believed that she had been brutally murdered and although she hadn't been, _someone _had and this what had really haunted her, that some poor girl had died, probably for the crime of bearing a passing resemblance to her, it was horrifying to behold. She splashed her face with some cold water as there was a soft knock on the bathroom door. Fred.

"Are you OK?" he said, poking his head around the door cautiously

"No, not really, I'm barely holding it together if I'm honest" she said, obviously fighting back tears. Fred was by her side in a heartbeat, holding her, but Daphne couldn't help but be reminded of the first time he had held her, in the car park at the gym, when she thought he was her saviour and instead he had horrifyingly betrayed her. Fred felt the tension in her body immediately as he pulled her close, wincing as he yet again was forced to remind himself what he had done to her.

"I will never hurt you again, I'm so sorry" he whispered, his chin resting on the top of her head "I _will_ make this right I promise."

Daphne melted against his muscular chest, barely even noticing it was naked and all he was stood in was his pyjama bottoms, he kissed her forehead and she closed her eyes.

"I'm so scared" she admitted, "this is so far beyond anything I've done before, we're not cut out for this." Their heads were inches apart and Fred had to fight the overwhelming desire to kiss her, he settled for circling her back soothingly, the guilt he felt for his part in this mess still gnawed away at him relentlessly.

In one single crazy moment he had turned this girl's life upside down. There was nothing to say Devon might have struck anyway, but it didn't ease his personal burden.

They were both lost in thoughts, lost in the still embrace when Shaggy suddenly and noisily burst into the bathroom.

"Hey man! I gotta take a...Whoa! Sorry guys!" he said backing away and out the door as rapidly as he had come in. Fred and Daphne sprang apart guiltily even though they were doing nothing more than hugging. Fred had seen the confusion and shock on his friend's face and knew he had to talk to him. His hand brushed against hers again "are you O.K now?"

She nodded and Fred let her go, rushing to catch up with Shaggy. He found him in the kitchen just as he was fixing a snack for Scooby Doo, Shaggy was deliberately avoiding Fred's gaze, instead focussing on the task at hand.

"Shaggy..." Fred started unsuccessfully.

"No! Don't," Shaggy cut him off, bending to pour the food in Scooby's bowl. "This is absolutely crazy Fred, you're going to get us killed!" he stated, straightening himself to above Fred's height again.

"You're going to risk your life for this chick," he continued, "you barely even _know_ her and need I remind you that no less than 48 hours ago, she was your _hostage!_" he hissed. Shaggy had been shocked by the scene he witnessed in the bathroom, he knew his friend was sweet on the girl but the intimacy, he hadn't expected that.

Fred didn't know what to say, he knew how absurd the situation was but he knew his own heart.

"I'm falling for her Shaggy," he admitted to his friend quietly. "I've never felt this way before."

Shaggy knew his buddy, knew he wasn't the type to fall head long in lust and spiral out just as quickly so he knew his friend's feelings were genuine. He had suspected it himself, through the longing looks his friend had gave her even when she was in his captivity and his impassioned speech as he had begged them to help her but didn't until now realise how deep those feelings ran.

"Damn," Shaggy said softly "and for her? Does she feel the same way?"

"I think so, it's really hard to explain but there's just a connection between us you know? And she must feel it too because well she's still here isn't she?"

Shaggy nodded.

Fred knew she was the ultimate forbidden fruit, they couldn't be together, it would be impossible, how could she ever really trust him after what he'd done, what he had shown himself to be capable of? What kind of life could they ever hope to have when she was to all intent and purpose 'dead' or pursued to that end? That's why he was desperate to catch her father, remove the threat and give her some hope of a normal life.

He sat down at their breakfast bar, bowl of cereal in hand, with the papers splayed in front of him, the headlines were obvious, her photo beamed up at him, her smile lighting up the page and her beautiful red hair hung loosely off her shoulders as she stood in a pretty dress with a friend.

"Adored daughter found strangled in a shallow grave."

Fred's stomach lurched at the words, although it wasn't Daphne they had found lying in the dirt, it was someone's daughter and he wondered again how Devon could have pulled that off but mostly how he could be such a cold hearted son of a bitch.

He skimmed the article, the police believe she had died in the last 12 hours after her kidnapper and eventual killer had panicked. The last time anyone remembered seeing Daphne was at the gym 24 hours previously. Fred held his breath a little at this part, when he read how blood was found in the car park. He soon blew his cheeks in relief however when it said they didn't however, have any leads and CCTV was tampered with. Their incompetence shouldn't have come as a surprise to him, he knew first hand how useless the police were in Coolsville but he had briefly wondered if they had significantly messed up when Velma and Shag messed up their Plan A.

Daphne emerged a couple of hours later, with Fred having gone to work and and the newspapers binned. Fred would have loved nothing more than to stay and look after Daphne and help plan the next move but knew he couldn't arouse any suspicions by missing work. Shaggy wasn't due at work until the evening and nobody knew exactly what it was Velma did to pay the bills but she didn't seem to be doing it at the minute so it was the 3 of them left together that morning.

Daphne was extremely troubled at the lack of contact from Ethan and confided those concerns to Velma.

"Why wouldn't he have called?"

Velma shrugged she didn't have an answer, all she could do was hope that he was OK and hope that feeling of dread in her stomach was just a badly digesting breakfast.

As soon as Fred arrived at the garage where he had worked the past couple of years, there was only one topic of conversation, news of the brutal murder had shocked the whole town.

"Gosh she was so beautiful!" His boss said, devouring the newspaper in front of him, "who on earth would want to kill a girl like that?"

"My money is on a secret boyfriend who killed her in a jealous rage!" his colleague Jack Smithson speculated excitedly.

"Or maybe it was the work of a serial killer!" His friend Greg chimed in. "What do you think Freddy?"

"I dunno, maybe it was her own father?" he shrugged hoping to sound like a nonchalant speculator.

His friends gaped at him. "Woah! Freddy man, that is DARK and TWISTED..."

Fred gulped, he'd blown it, already given too much away but then Greg grinned "I LOVE it! What a great theory!"

His shoulders visibly relaxed, his colleagues were just treating it like this was some real life version of Cluedo, he reminded himself to join in the banter. "Hey maybe it was that werewolf crazy old Johnson was going on about!" he said joining in playfully.

"NICE!" Jack praised, high-fiving him.

Fred breathed a sigh of relief, he was just one of the lads again. He felt a jab of guilt at the manner he'd joked about the girl's death in, he knew the truth and it was actually sicker than anything himself, Jack or Greg had suggested.

"Okay enough CSI sleuthing boys and get yourself to work!" Their boss, Roy Donovan exclaimed.

Greg and Jack had ongoing repair jobs to work on whilst Fred had a new one that had just come in that morning. He struggled to keep his mind on the job, instead thoughts wandering to the beautiful woman who was holed up in their apartment. He prepared to jack the car up, completing a check of the car first, tutting when he found a phone tucked away in the glove compartment, it was common to find owners had forgotten to clear their car and he reached in for the phone, frowning when his hands touched something else instead. An envelope. He pulled out the phone and the envelope intending to take it to the lost property box, when a single phrase on the envelope caught his eye and his heart dropped a little. His name, written neatly in full across the front _F.A.O Fred Jones_. Dread filled his stomach, with the events of the past two days or so, nothing good could come from this surely.

With trepidation and shaking fingers he opened the envelope and immediately knew his initial foreboding sense of doom was correct. He stared in disbelief at the photos in his hand, wishing he could unsee what was in the images. At first he thought he didn't even recognise the poor battered and bloody soul but then realisation set in, the boy was Daphne's cousin Ethan and he had clearly been tortured, it didn't take a genius to work out who had done the torturing.

Fred felt sick to the core, he barely knew Ethan and truth be told had taken a bit of a disliking to him when they met but even so nobody deserved the fate that had befallen the unfortunate Ethan, kidnapped and tortured by a psychopath. Fred couldn't stop looking at the pictures, the man he had considered quite cocky and confident when they had briefly met just the night before had been destroyed mentally and in many ways, physically in one set of macabre photos. Fred's hands trembled as he took in the horror, in one photo Ethan was blindfolded and suspended from the ceiling in what could only be described as a torture chamber. In another, he was strapped to a chair, covered in blood and with bruises adorning too many parts of his body to mention, in the final shot he wasn't even restrained, just lying on the floor in a pool of blood, a haunted look in his eyes, a broken man.

A chill went through every part of Fred's body, that picture was by far the worst, even if he was still alive, he was so broken, he was dead inside, there was no light in those once bright eyes.

He wanted to cry, cry for the man he knew very little of but whose life had been brutally destroyed. He shoved the photos back into the envelope, completely at a loss what to do next when he spotted the note on the back in the same neat handwriting as his name.

_Fred, I suggest you find a quiet corner to make this call, you'll find I left you a burner to contact me on, I guarantee you it will be worth your while. Consider yourself watched. D._

Devon had found him, somehow he had worked out they were the one's who were hiding Daphne, he had left the photos and the phone for him to find, had dropped off a car at his workplace. He realised that it could only be Ethan that had given him up and for a fleeting moment he felt anger but was quickly reminded of the images, wouldn't like to say how well he would hold out under such brutal torture. Panic flooded him as he realised the situation, if Devon knew about him, did he know about Shaggy, where he lived? Could he find Daphne that way? Was he there already?

He scrambled out of the workshop, knowing his face looked flushed and worried, but he couldn't do anything about that now, he knew he could be arousing suspicion in his colleagues but the more pressing thing was making sure his friends were safe.

"I have to take a break Roy," he said to his boss, desperately trying to control his trembling voice.

Roy looked at his young charge with concern "are you okay Freddy? You look a little pale kid"

"Sure, Fred tried to smile, "I just need some air"

Roy nodded. "Okay"

Fred hurried out the door, already speed dialling Shaggy's number as he dashed to the back alley, his heart beat quickening with every unanswered ring, "c'mon Shaggy!" he cursed about ready to break down when his best friend finally answered.

"Hey Fred, what's up?" Shaggy answered very casually and very obviously not in any immediate danger.

"Shaggy!" He virtually screamed. "Is everything okay, where's Daphne?"

"We're fine man," Shaggy replied, "Daphne's curled up on the sofa and Velma is busy hammering away on the laptop, why?" he asked immediately sensing the panic in his friend's voice.

Fred felt relieved at Shaggy's words as he mulled over the likely possibility that Ethan probably knew nothing about Shaggy and that was what had saved them given that it was Shaggy who had used the remainder of his parent's inheritance to buy their new apartment once Fred could no longer afford rent on their old place he originally took Shaggy in to. There was no way Devon knew anything about Shaggy and as long as it stayed that way they would be okay for now.

"Well?" His friend exclaimed urgently.

He had momentarily forgot about Shaggy on the other end and realised he wanted an answer, he was tempted to tell him all about Devon taking Ethan but had a last second change of heart, no point involving him in this mess too, he never should have asked him to do what they did in the first place.

"Oh nothing!" he lied, "just checking everything was a-ok!" he tried to say brightly. Shaggy was no fool though and knew something had spooked his friend "are _you _OK?" he countered.

"I'm fine, just a little stressed out, the lads are all discussing what's happened and it's difficult to try and act normal you know?" he said hoping Shaggy would buy that was the reason.

Shaggy sounded unconvinced but didn't push it any further. "Okay Fred, see you later," he hung up.

Fred slipped his phone into his jacket, his heart beat just about returning to normal, his friends were safe for the minute, it was a huge relief, he knew it was the right thing to do, not involving Shaggy but it did mean he had to face this new predicament alone. He pulled the envelope back out careful to only take out the piece of paper with the message on and not the photos. He didn't want to look at those any moment longer than he had to. He took out the burner phone fingering the message on the envelope "_Consider yourself watched" _it chilled him to the bone, he knew he would have to call Devon but had no idea what lay in store. Looking around to ensure he wasn't been spied on by his colleagues at least he dialled the number given on the note and swallowed hard. Poor Fred didn't know he was about to do a deal with the devil.


	12. Deal with the devil

Part 12 Deal with the Devil

Devon answered quickly with a sneer that immediately came through the phone. "Fred" he said. "I knew you would call, I assume you know who I am?"

"Devon Blake I presume?" Fred answered calmly

"Excellent, I trust you got the present I left you?" Devon asked.

"Yes." Fred answered curtly, "what do you want from me?"

"So impatient," Devon chastised, "that's the problem with the youth of today, no time for pleasantries."

"Well? Why did you send me those photos? I don't care about him," he tried to say confidently.

"No, you may not but you know that _she_ does. Imagine how she would feel if she knew that_ you_ knew exactly what had happened to her beloved cousin and did nothing?"

Fred cursed loudly, so that was it, blackmail, trying to turn Daphne against him. "Blackmail?" He said bitterly "is that the best you can do?"

"Oh no Fred, you obviously don't know me at all, I want to make a deal with you!"

"A deal?" Fred scoffed, "why on earth would I want to do a deal with you?"

"Because you're smart Fred, I know you won't _really _ throw your life away over this girl, I can offer you what you wanted, why you took her in the first place, your selfish pursuit of money"

"I don't want anything from you and I won't give her up," Fred declared adamantly.

"Foolish child" Devon chuckled, "you don't think I will find her anyway with or without your help? Boy, her fate is sealed anyway I am giving you a chance to walk away from this with that new life you craved, with more money than you can even imagine you can't say you are not even the slightest bit interested?"

Fred honestly was not the slightest bit interested, inadvertently their escapade had potentially brought him something far greater than wealth, a shot at love and no offer of money in the world would even consider him to jeopardise that. For Devon however, Fred knew he had to play along, let him think he had him on side partly, it was perhaps their best chance at tracking him down and now, finding Ethan too.

"How much are we talking?" Fred said cautiously

"Ah! I knew that would get your interest!" Devon cried triumphantly "2 million dollars, more than enough to get yourself away from here"

"And I would have to do what exactly?" Fred said, carefully trying to sound like he was skeptical but interested, a complete 180 would be wholly unrealistic, given how he approached the phone call.

"You need to tell me where she is of course, you deliver her to me and I deliver the money"

"Just like that?"

"Just like that" Devon said smoothly

"And you'll just let me walk away? I don't buy it sorry"

"Freddy, may I call you that? If I wanted to kill you I could have done that already, I know where you work remember and I know what you're wearing right this moment blue jeans and a white shirt with a plaid jacket on top" He reeled off as simply as if he was reading a shopping list. "I could put a bullet in you before you could even move," he threatened calmly.

Fred made an inexplicable choking sound in his throat as he struggled to recover from that terrifying revelation.

"I have no purpose to gain from killing you" Devon continued "my daughter is the final piece in this jigsaw, again I must say how disappointing it was that you didn't carry out that favour for me, I was most excited when I got your call."

Fred gritted his teeth as Devon once again reminded him of his most hated crime. "And I suppose you had no purpose to gain from killing Ethan?" Fred asked boldly.

Devon chuckled "A fair question Mr. Jones but I took him merely to serve a purpose, namely to get a lead on her as I knew she wouldn't be able to resist blabbing to him. In any case he isn't dead, just extremely sore I'd wager. I shall be holding on to him though as I'm sure you understand the value of a good hostage?"

_Again with the digs! _Freddy thought, _he sure knows how to get under my skin! _But his ruse had worked, he had managed to glean out of him that Ethan was _not_ dead and he was incredibly relieved for that, he knew he needed to try and save him but how. Even as Devon continued ranting on, Fred's brain cells were ticking over, he was going to have to go along with Devon's deal somehow and double cross him and in the same process save Ethan. He had no idea how he was going to do all this but knew if he pulled it off it would be some way on the path to redemption. He fantasised about capturing Devon and his cronies, unmasking Dracula and his dastardly helpers triumphantly but there was a long way to go before that. _How do you go about trapping one of the most dangerous criminals Coolsville had ever seen? And how does one go about a 'trap' anyway? _He certainly enjoyed making stuff when he was at school and was handy with tools but he had very little idea how to go about it. He had absolutely no intention of letting Daphne anywhere near her father but he had to make Devon believe he would and find out where Ethan was being held.

"So what do you say Freddy?" Devon said smugly "do we have a deal? Oh and before you decide let me give you one more incentive..."

Fred held onto the cell with increasing trepidation, he had already threatened to kill him, what more could he threaten him with? Devon's cocky voice was replaced with static for a time before he heard the click of a recorder whir into action and he heard Ethan's frightened voice.

"_But I do know something! I know who kidnapped her!"_

The recording clicked off and Devon played him no more, "you can imagine what he told me, I have a friend at the Coolsville police department who unlike the rest of them is _not _ a halfwit and would be very interested in this information"

Although Freddy couldn't really care less if he did end up behind bars and knew he deserved that in the least for his crime but wanted to call Devon's bluff anyway

"But surely that 'evidence' would have been obtained under duress? What kind of police officer would accept such evidence?"

Devon smiled, the kid was definitely smart, he would enjoy toying with this one. "Oh my friend doesn't care about small things like the law" he smirked "All he cares about is a name and he will nail your ass to the wall without a doubt."

_There it is _Fred thought _proof that atleast one cop in this town is bent and Devon's lapdog. _It sure explained a lot about how Devon had got away with stuff for so long.

"So if you do attempt to double cross me in any way, you will be LUCKY if I decide calling my friend is the best option for dealing with you, do I make myself clear?" Devon asked with real menace and intent. The threat was clear.

"Crystal" Fred replied hoarsely.

"Excellent, my associate will give you your next instruction when he comes to pick up the car tomorrow at 8am sharp, make sure you are there, we have a deal yes?"

"We have a deal" Freddy swallowed thickly.

To Be continued...

Thanks for reading :) More parts coming soon! And things are really hotting up - betrayal, lust, revenge, and one hell of a bombshell secret reveal and twist all still to come. Totally not your average Scooby Doo story but hopefully you can still see the foundations there! Until next time .. AA


	13. You're no good dead

Part 13

Fred exhaled violently immediately after Devon ended the call, releasing a breath he didn't realise he had been holding in. He was in big trouble now, he was never ever going to go through with this deal and Devon had made it very clear what the consequences of this would be. He suddenly felt a huge rush of bile in his throat as the magnitude of what had happened set in and he vomited in the alley.

Presently, he was aware of a presence behind him and panicked remembering Devon's message but visibly relaxed when he saw who it was.

"Hey buddy," Greg said, "Roy sent me out here to see how you were doing? You OK man?"

"Sure," Fred tried to smile, "just a bad breakfast burrito"

"Ugh, nasty," Greg wrinkled his nose, "well if you're sure you're OK.."

"I am" Fred reassured, "I feel loads better, tell Roy I'll be back in a minute"

"Okay Freddy, but just make sure it's out your system, you know how pernicious Roy gets about puking up on the customer's cars."

Fred laughed softly, "I just need some water and some air and then I'll be fine," he assured his friend.

"Sure thing," Greg waved and disappeared back inside.

For the rest of the day Fred carried on as normal, Devon's car required quite a bit of work and as tempting as it was to do a shoddy job on purpose, he knew there would be nothing to gain from this and his conscience simply wouldn't allow it so he did his job as finely as he serviced any car and tried not to think about the photos burning a hole in his pocket.

Slightly after clocking out time his work was done, and Fred was ready to head for home, he got in his car and begun the familiar route home when after several minutes he became aware he was being followed, a black sedan careful to stay a couple of vehicles behind but with Fred's heightened senses he picked up on it quickly.

_Of Course _Fred thought _he did say I was being watched. _It quickly occurred to him that he could be be followed all the way home and of course he could not allow that to happen and put his friends in danger.

For once though since Fred had stumbled into this adventure he wasn't concerned, there was a reason he was their elected get-away driver on their many daring escapades, he knew how to lose a tail. Determinedly he pushed his foot down on the accelerator, noticing grimly that the sedan had indeed broken cover in pursuit, this was no coincidence, he was definitely being followed. He led the sedan on a merry dance about town performing U turns where legal and using as many dark shortcuts as he knew but still the sedan stuck doggedly on his tail. He knew he might have to start really pushing it to lose him, even if that meant breaking the law. He carried on down the main highway weaving in and out of traffic, before taking a deep breath at what he was going to do, tyres squealing and with drivers all round cursing at his sheer stupidity he performed a highly illegal U – turn, barely missing a van coming the other way as he struggled to take control again. He knew what he did was incredibly stupid and reckless but as he noticed with satisfaction it seemed to work as the sedan careened off in the opposite direction. He gripped the wheel hard continuing to check his rear-view mirror but the sedan did not reappear and Fred finally felt safe enough to drive home.

Exhausted from work and the stunt he had to pull to get home all he wanted to do was curl up and sleep but knew it simply wasn't an option not with the photographs burning a hole in his jacket pocket and the horrifying knowledge he had come to acquire. He knew he looked like a man with the world on his shoulders and attempted to set his face into more relaxed features as he pushed open the door.

Only Shaggy was visible as he entered their apartment and he greeted him as jovially as he could.

"Hey man," he shouted to the taller teen in the kitchen.

Shaggy looked up from the dinner he had been preparing, 'oh hey Fred, you OK? You sounded really rattled on the phone this morning?"

Fred cursed under his breath_ trust Shaggy not to forget! He's like a dog with a bone at times! _He thought.

"Yeah, fine, fine, like I said Greg and the guys just wouldn't let things go and it's incredibly difficult to act normal," he replied casually.

"Oh sure, I know what you mean," said Shaggy deliberately looking Fred in the eye, "it's kind of what you're trying and failing to do right now...acting _normal_ I mean," he said pointedly.

It caught Fred off guard but he knew there was no fooling Shaggy, "are the girls here?" he said in a low whisper, his demeanour completely changing in an instant.

"Daphne's sleeping and Velma's out, you have GOT to tell me what's going on Fred, you can't keep this bottled up!"

Fred crossed the lounge to his room, peeking in carefully to make sure Daphne was indeed asleep, he eventually made out her sleeping form rising and falling in the darkness, satisfied, he closed the door again with a silent click. He walked over and sat down at the kitchen table, hands clasped together in silent contemplation as he worried over just how much he was about to get his best friend involved with.

Shaggy finished what he was doing and came and sat opposite him, "come on man, it can't be that bad surely!"

Fred offered him a wry smile, "Oh boy it really can."

Shaggy was alarmed, things were already pretty much in the shit, just how much more could they actually take?

"Spill," he demanded, his own worry now gnawing away at him.

Fred sighed, "I was followed home," he confessed, "things got _pretty_ hairy and '_Fast and the Furious _Fred' was forced to make a re-appearance."

"Crap!" Shaggy exclaimed, "are you sure you lost him?"

"I waited forever man, the coast was definitely clear, but he had skills, it was a very close run thing"

"So who was he? And how the hell did he know who you were?" Shaggy asked nervously.

"Well that's the other thing," Freddy said equally nervously, "Devon kind of found out who I am."

Shaggy jumped straight out of his seat, "DEVON?! How? Why?!" he shouted loudly.

"Shhhh!" Freddy urgently shushed him, "don't wake her please, she can't know about this!"

Taking charge Shaggy grabbed Fred's arm leading him quickly out the apartment and into the van. Only when the door was closed behind the two did he open his mouth.

"Okay, she can't hear us here, now tell me EVERYTHING Fred and I mean everything" he said folding his arms, "I want to know exactly bad this is about to get!"

Once again Fred considered not burdening his friend with the horrors of the last few hours but knew keeping it to himself was a far greater torture. He nodded, "it doesn't go further than this van?"

"Okay" Shaggy agreed, knowing he may not able to keep the agreement depending on what Fred was about to say.

"So Devon knows who we are, sorry who _I _am..." he said, taking a deep breath, "because Devon's _got _Ethan."

"What do you mean Devon's _got _Ethan?" Shaggy asked, eyeing Fred warily as he produced a thick envelope.

"Go ahead, take a look" Fred sighed wearily.

Shaggy tentatively grabbed the envelope and peeked inside, pulling out the photos. He instantly paled, hands going to straight to his mouth. "Oh...my...god Freddy...these are just...WHERE DID YOU GET THESE?!"

Fred did not enjoy his friend's reaction, replying miserably "He must have took him not long after we met him. He was obviously tortured to get information and gave up me and Velma..."

"And me? Because if he found you, he can find me and then he can find THIS place and then..." Shaggy kicked the inside wall in anger "we are absolutely fucked Fred! We're like sitting ducks!"

Fred knew Shaggy's reaction would be bad, but could not have predicted the panic and seeming meltdown the revelation had caused.

"Shaggy, it's okay, he does NOT know you, he doesn't, they cannot find this place, we're perfectly safe...for now" he added.

"Yeah exactly, _for now._ Maybe next time we won't get so lucky someone tries to follow you! Just how did you get those photos?"

"They were delivered to my work, planted in a car actually, with a burner to contact him on."

Shaggy's eyes widened at that last part, at the implication it carried, "wait... you SPOKE to him?"

"I called him," Freddy confirmed.

Shaggy's eyes were practically out on stalks now, in his mind his friend clearly had a death-wish.

"Why?! Fred, the man is a psychopath! Look what he did to this poor guy, and how on earth do you expect me not to tell Daphne her cousin has been murdered! By her father!"

"That's why I did it, I had to know, he's _not_ dead Shaggy, there's a chance for us to save him!"

Shaggy didn't miss a beat, "I'm glad he's not dead, really I am but can you hear yourself? _We_ can save him? How? It's this kind of crazy talk and bigging ourselves up that got us involved in this absolute disaster in the first place! Where would you even begin, you know he doesn't work alone!"

The volume and intensity of Shaggy's voice had crept up and up and Fred was stunned, he had hoped telling Shaggy would ease his burden, that they could work together to come up with something but it was clear what Shaggy thought, he dare not tell him about his attempt to double- cross Devon with his bluff, he knew he was on his own.

"We've got to try," he said quietly.

"No!" Shaggy cried, "no there can be no 'we' this time, not again, we're out of our depth, how can you not see this?! Didn't the disaster of an abduction prove anything to you?"

Fred was shocked by the venom of his best friend's words, but knew deep down that he was right.

"I'm sorry about Ethan, really I am but I don't want to end up like that man!" Shaggy pleaded for his friend to see sense but feared he was seeing Fred's stubborn side surface again.

He got up to go, pushing the door open, he looked back at Fred sitting in quiet contemplation, "please don't do anything stupid Fred, you asked us to help her, you will be no good to her dead."

Fred didn't say anything, couldn't say anything, nothing Shaggy had said was wrong but he also couldn't let an innocent man die, he didn't know what he could do yet but he knew he was going to do something even if it meant doing it alone.

Shaggy walked away from the van, not able to get the photos out of his mind, he had never met this man but he wouldn't wish that kind of thing on his worst enemy, not even the nastiest bully from his high school, nobody deserved that and only a true monster could ever be capable of such horror. Ethan looked in such pain that it was of Shaggy's opinion that it was probably better if the poor boy was put out of his misery, from those grisly images it didn't look like there would be much of him left to rescue. He knew his friend though, once he was determined about something, there was never any dissuading him, Fred was a strong individual but could be no match for someone like Devon, a man who seemingly tortured people at will, didn't think anything of killing his only daughter. There would only be one winner in such a battle and Shaggy knew it wouldn't be his brave friend. Friend was what he was however, his very best friend who had stood shoulder to shoulder with him through his very darkest hours and even though he was furious with him for his recklessness, and despite what he had said, there was no way at all that he was going to let Fred walk himself into the lion's den. He had no intention of telling Daphne but there was someone else he trusted to share this with, it was breaking Fred's trust but the way Shaggy saw it there were no other options, only one other person could try help make sense of this terrible situation and tell him what to do with rational thought and clinical thinking, without emotions clouding judgements.

He returned to the apartment where Daphne was still sleeping and beckoned silently to his dog Scooby who had looked up in confusion when Shaggy had marched Fred out of the apartment. Scooby came to him, wagging his tail happily, and Shaggy obliged with the customary fuss. "Hey boy!" he said, "we're going for a walk!"

They left the apartment, Shaggy looking over his shoulder at every turn, increasingly paranoid that any minute now someone was going to jump out at him or alternatively just shoot him dead, but he made it to their destination without being attacked or assassinated and he knocked three times on the strong oak door. She took her time reaching the door, and as Shaggy was about to hammer for a fourth time, finally she opened up. Shaggy felt himself calming down immediately, she had such a relaxing presence, her face showed no emotion except for perhaps a bit of curiosity, she didn't typically have night- time visitors so wasn't surprised who was waiting behind the door. He looked flustered and she knew immediately that this was not just a social call.

"Velma," he finally said, "I think Fred's got himself in a whole lot of trouble and I really need your help!"

Velma ushered them in without another sound. Shaggy did not make it back to the apartment that night.


	14. Stay the night

Velma led Shaggy and Scooby to her spacious living room, motioning Shaggy to sit down on the couch, Scooby immediately curled up at his feet, she offered the boy a beer and the dog some water before sitting opposite, perching uncomfortably on an overstuffed armchair. She observed as Shaggy took a huge gulp of his beer, he wasn't a big drinker and she knew from his tense expression and sweating palms that something had really rattled him. He almost looked like he had seen a ghost and the way he had darted in as soon as she had opened the door, it was like he was scared of being followed. He took several more long swigs before setting the can down with a soft clang. She waited patiently whilst he readied himself to speak.

Shaggy was not one for long narrative and blurted out the pertinent facts succinctly to Velma, desperately trying to remain calm but barely pausing for breath. "Devon has kidnapped Ethan, he sent Fred proof, oh yeah Devon knows who we are, well not me, but you and Fred and he had Fred followed. Fred being the selfish, stubborn bastard you know he can be, has grand plans to be the hero and _rescue_ Ethan when we both know he's just going to get himself fucking killed."

Velma remained emotionless while Shaggy was delivering his diatribe, once he had finished, she still didn't react, instead thoughtfully considering what he had just said.

"My, what a mess," she commented softly.

"Tell me about it!" Shaggy complained. "what are we going to do Velma? It's only a matter of time before they find us and these aren't some small time crooks like us, they're gangsters, they WILL end us."

"Of course, so what's Fred's plan?"

"He didn't really elaborate, I don't think I gave him time to" Shaggy said ruefully. "But you know Fred, he will storm into this without even thinking and he will.." tears sprung to Shaggy's eyes, "I can't let him get hurt."

Velma knew how much Fred meant to Shaggy, having being there when nobody else was, the worry for his best friend was obvious.

"How does he propose tracking Ethan down?"

"I don't know, but he has those photos, there might be some kind of clue on them"

"Sure but Fred has them so there's nothing more we can do tonight then? It's erm pretty late now and with everything that's going on...maybe you should erm stay here?"

It was Velma's turn to be shy and stumbling with her words, she could handle anything but after Shaggy had told her Devon was onto them, she had maintained her normal calm outlook but really she was terrified, didn't like the idea of being alone and suddenly really just wanted the tall floppy haired teen to stay with her

"I'll stay if you want" he told her quietly, an understanding immediately passing between them, tonight wasn't a night to be alone.

Meanwhile, Fred had returned to the apartment to discover Shaggy was gone. He sighed as he sunk back into the couch, it had not gone at all well with Shaggy, but it hadn't dampened his resolve, saving Ethan was his priority now and he would have to do it alone. He looked at the photos again hoping for a major clue in the background that could tell him where Ethan had been taken to but frustratingly nothing jumped out at him. He stuffed the photos away and switched the TV on, it was getting late and an action film was on, he watched the ludicrous plot for half hour or so, the irony not lost on him that what was happening in his own life was potentially more ludicrous than any crazy film story recently.

Around midnight, as he was starting to doze off, he heard a door open and assumed Shaggy had returned, he was wrong, it wasn't the external door, it was internal. A very sleepy looking Daphne emerged in the doorway of Fred's bedroom, her hair was was all mussed and she was wearing one of Fred's old shirts. Fred thought she looked beautiful in that moment. She blinked a few times as her eyes adjusted to the bright light. "Hey," she said softly, "what time is it?"

Fred had shifted uncomfortably the moment he saw her, relieved he had remembered to tuck away the photos. "It's after 12," he replied, noticing the immediate frown. "What's wrong?"

"12? Oh god Freddie, I'm really worried about Ethan now. He hasn't called and I can't reach him, I just know something is wrong, I can feel it in my gut."

Fred felt an immediate stab of guilt at his name and for Daphne's obvious distress but hid it well.

"Hey, I'm sure it's OK, he's probably just switched his phone off or something or lost his charger," He knew his explanation was lame and she would need further comfort, he enveloped her in a hug.

"Tomorrow, I'll go and look for him if you want? I could try his apartment, his work etc?"

I'd like to go with you," she said, knowing he would hate the suggestion, "you can't keep me holed up here forever, I HAVE to know what's happened to him."

There was a fierce expression of determination on her face and Fred knew there was little point in trying to convince her otherwise, she had that same stubborn streak he knew so well.

"Okay," he said "but if we go together, we go now under the cover of darkness" he said grimly, "it's safer for you that way."

Daphne didn't protest, just nodded in agreement, and stalked off to get dressed, when she came out again, she was dressed all in black, which with her hair meant she was ready to blend into the shadows. Fred pulled on a dark blue jacket and a cap and nodded to her. Daphne was terrified of what they might find but knew she needed to know, on a whim she raced back to Fred's room and retrieved the gun from it's well concealed hiding spot. _It's for protection _she tried to convince herself, not willing to consider the possible danger they might be facing.

Fred's mind was also racing, he knew he was betraying her _again_ and it killed him inside but he couldn't tell her, the photos in his pocket, they would destroy her, he had to give her hope. They arrived at Ethan's neat apartment complex in the very small hours, there didn't seem to be a soul around and that suited the young pair down to the ground. There didn't seem to be any sign of danger as they walked up to the fifth floor where Ethan's bachelor pad was located. The corridor was very quiet as they crept along, arriving at Ethan's door. Daphne gave Fred a nod as he knocked softly and got no reply, Daphne felt her fears rising as Fred tried the door handle and it gave straight away. He ushered her behind him immediately, sensing the possible danger, he winced as he stepped in and felt his boot make contact with a sticky substance on the floor and very promptly wished he had insisted on Daphne staying at home, he groped for a light switch that immediately confirmed his worst fears, he was standing in a large pool of blood. The place was trashed, the blood by the door wasn't even the worst thing. He desperately tried to shield her, to stop her coming in, trying to block her path. "You don't need to see this!" he whispered fiercely, aware that if they alerted the neighbours to the scene, it could make their situation ten times worse but Daphne forced her way in anyway, it took all of her strength to clamp down on her own hand to prevent the scream that was desperate to come out, Fred pulled her close to him, shielding her eyes from the horror, but there was no unseeing what was in there, her cousins apartment trashed, a pool of blood by the door and a message so very clear in it's intent it was only meant for her. Not on paper, but smeared on Ethan's pristine cream walls, a river of red, a message in blood...YOUR LIFE FOR HIS.

Suddenly for Daphne it all made sense, Devon had upped the ante and gone after his own nephew. "He took him! The bastard, he took him!"

Fred hadn't known exactly what they would find at Ethan's apartment but he had hoped it wouldn't be as bad as this. "We've got to go Daph!" he whispered urgently, "We can't be here, there's nothing more to be done here!" Daphne was distraught with grief and anger but knew Fred was right, they couldn't be found here, Ethan's apartment would surely be discovered soon and though the message was ambiguous to anyone but them, it wouldn't be long before the police started to put the clues together. She allowed Fred to pull her along wordlessly, not fully breaking down until they were long out of sight and in the car back at Fred's place.

"He took the one last thing I care about!" She was furious and emotional, her hands shaking with rage but her eyes full of tears, "all this time, and he's had him, god I'm so stupid, I should NEVER have got him involved, of course he would go after him to get me!"

Fred grabbed Daphne's hands firmly in his. "look at me Daphne it is NOT your fault, none of this is,"

Daphne looked up at him through tear-stained lashes, "why is this happening to me Fred?" She seemed to be in such despair and Fred felt desperately for this girl, it wasn't fair, she had suffered tragedy after tragedy and then they had exacerbated the situation further by picking her as their rich girl to kidnap in their get rich quick scheme. Fred knew not a day would go by where he wouldn't regret that decision to the bitter end. He stroked her hands tenderly, "it's not your fault" he repeated tenderly, "we'll find him, I promise we'll find him."

She sobbed quietly, here this man was promising to help her again, she knew it could ultimately be a promise that couldn't be fulfilled but it was the sincerity that got to her, his blue eyes shone as he held her hands, there was a real determination there, he was so ready to make amends and she felt her walls crumbling, _perhaps there is someone else left I care about_ she thought to herself.

He pulled her closer and her heartbeat quickened as he reached with his thumb to brush away her tears, her eyes searched his, as she allowed his thumb to trail her lips, the chemistry in that moment was electric and she did not stop him as he tilted her mouth towards his, his free hand continuing to stroke her hair. She savoured the taste as his lips met hers, relaxing into the kiss. It was sweet, tender and she never wanted it to end.

She tasted of strawberries and cream. That was the first thing Fred thought of when he kissed her soft lips, a part of him hated himself more than ever for initiating a kiss when she was in such a vulnerable and emotional state, what kind of jerk did that? But he couldn't resist any longer, he had wanted to kiss her for such a long time and he was terrified she would pull away but she reciprocated the kiss straight away. It was everything he hoped it would be and more and he didn't want to let her go, reluctantly though, he knew he must and pulled back.

"I'm sorry" he said automatically, even though he wasn't in the slightest.

"I'm not," Daphne said lightly and they both smiled.

Unbeknown to them however, they hadn't been as alone as they thought, while he hadn't seen the kiss in the car, the strategically placed camera at Ethan's apartment had captured their reactions and what it had witnessed was very interesting, the protective way the male had shielded his female companion from what lay inside, her spiky resolve, the way he had comforted her when she took in the scene, the way she allowed herself to melt into his chest, the business like manner he had taken care of things, ensuring above all that she was safe. _Yes_ Devon decided, _it was certainly interesting, very interesting indeed._

To Be Continued...


	15. A beacon of hope?

Author's Note: Oh wow quite an update gap huh? I can only offer my sincerest of apologies as I haven't had the time to devote to continuing to update this story. Your patience however is rewarded with this a three chapter arc that pushes the action on. I decided to upload all three at once as an apology for the lack of the updates and also as these chapters herald some pretty big game changing moments. As the school year ends (Teacher not student!) I have the time to spend on getting this finished as I know there's nothing worse than stories that are left hanging in the FanFiction Universe forever. So three chapters up instantly and although I won't promise you in case it doesn't happen. I am aiming to have this all up by the end of the summer. That's my target. For now enjoy the chapters and let me know what you think!

Nothing happened. He felt like he needed to re-assure himself of that fact as he rose in the morning, sure they had slept together, but not _together _together, he'd simply slept next to her, his arm wrapped securely around her waist, he knew it had been a comfort to her, she never expressed she was afraid, she would never want to appear so weak but he knew the news had unsettled her, she would never have let her guard down so much and invite him to stay if she hadn't felt concerned. So he slept next to her fully clothed and it had been wonderful.

Velma felt embarrassed she had shown such weakness, begging Shaggy to stay, sharing her bed but she didn't regret it, she wanted to forget it though and was all business when she joined him in her kitchen for a coffee.

"We had better get going straight away," she said, glancing at the clock, "we need to hope Fred's not already gone all kamikaze mission on us."

Shaggy felt a little hurt that she didn't want to mention last night at all but didn't let it show, agreeing they needed to get back to the apartment, as they arrived they were relieved to see Fred's car still in the garage, unless he had left on foot he was still there.

Fred indeed, was still inside, sleeping soundly on the sofa, Daphne was in his room, despite the kiss, Fred had absolutely no intention of taking advantage of her vulnerable state, and after another goodnight kiss, had allowed her the space she needed, after all she had just found out her cousin was a hostage in her father's twisted games, she wasn't in a great place emotionally. The kiss however just seemed right and if she had regrets, she didn't express them. When she woke him, she wasn't overly affectionate but neither was she cold, they both knew something had changed between them and both were unsure how to handle it. Their feelings for one another though just couldn't take priority right now and they both knew it. Clearly Devon's plan was to use Ethan to get to Daphne and that put them on edge, Fred knew from her reaction she would absolutely sacrifice herself to save him and he was equally absolute in his vow that he wouldn't allow that to happen.

Before they even had time to consider their next move, Shaggy, Velma and Scooby entered the apartment together.

_Velma, of course he went to Velma's_! Fred thought as he looked at his friend _and you stayed the night?_ Fred was certainly surprised, though they seemed quite friendly, he didn't know they had become _that _friendly!

Daphne closed the distance between them in an instant, going straight to Velma.

"Oh Velma we were right, Devon took Ethan!"

Fred watched Velma carefully as she took in Daphne's outburst, if she already knew and he suspected she did, she was very good at feigning surprise.

"That's terrible!" she exclaimed

Shaggy glanced across at Freddy, wondering what the blond boy was feeling, the situation was bad enough but had been exacerbated by the fact the three of them knew far, far worse than what Daphne did and Shaggy hated that. They sat there in silence for a period, nobody knowing quite what to say to each other and to Daphne especially.

Suddenly Velma stood up in excitement and reached for her laptop. "I think I might have an idea."

They gathered expectantly around the computer and Fred beamed when he realised what Velma had done. _Velma Dinkley I could kiss you!_

"What is this Velma?" Daphne asked in puzzlement at the hi tech wizardry on the screen.

"I'm afraid I wasn't honest with you or Ethan when I told him I was putting in a code to make his phone untraceable, what I really did was insert a tracker," Velma told Daphne blithely.

For a second Daphne looked troubled by the deceit but quickly realised what Velma had done could really help them.

"So you might be able to find him?" Daphne felt her hopes soaring

"It might not necessarily lead to _him_ but we should be able to find his cellphone" Velma affirmed.

Her fingers continued to fly across the keyboard at speed, as she tried to triangulate the location and the others watched her work in tense silence.

After a couple of nerve jangling minutes, she sat back in quiet satisfaction. "I think I got it."

They all peered at the little dot on the screen. "That's it?" Shaggy said

"Yes" Velma said, the location of the dot, not lost on anyone.

"It could just be his phone right? They could have dumped it?"

"it's not _in_ the river it's just by the river," Velma tried to reassure her.

Daphne had seen her hopes rise and crash in a matter of seconds, as she looked gloomily at the dot.

"Well I have to know either way, I need to know if he's still alive," she said, rising with purpose.

Fred jumped up too, but more in alarm than with resolution. "Now?" he said, the panic he tried to mask, not missed by Shaggy. _What are you up to now Freddy?_

"You have somewhere to be Fred?" Velma said with a hint of dark amusement.

"Well, er it's just work, they're a bit short on staff at the minute with Wade off" he babbled incoherently.

Shaggy instantly knew from the pathetic expression on his friend's face that there was a much bigger reason why Fred needed to be at work that morning. That he could even contemplate not helping Daphne potentially find her cousin was incomprehensible.

"Work?!" Daphne questioned angrily, "Ethan could be DEAD! And you're worried about missing work?!"

"Ethan's not.." Fred started and Velma and Shaggy sucked in their breaths wondering if Fred was going to reveal he knew Ethan was alive and open up another potentially huge can of worms but he closed his mouth, seemingly deciding against it.

"Ethan's not what?" Daphne pressed, "not important? Not your concern? Go on Fred what was it?"

That Fred was yet again keeping a huge thing from Daphne killed him but he couldn't say anything.

"Ethan's not going to have given up, you're right I need to help you"

The answer seemed to have pacified Daphne, "Well then what are waiting for?" she said determinedly.

On the ride down to the riverbank, Fred called his boss to buy him some more time, and hoped that Devon wouldn't be such a great timekeeper.

"Hi Roy? It's me Fred, listen I'm not gonna make it in until later, I have to go to the doctors. Yeah...follow up appointment for that back twinge," the lies tumbled out of his mouth before he knew it. "I know...and I'm sorry, I'll make it up to you later OK? See you then."

Fred didn't know what the reaction would be when Devon's crony came to pick up the car he just knew it wouldn't be pretty, he tried not to think about it and concentrated on the situation at hand. Poor Daphne was shaking like a leaf with the fear that they were about to find Ethan's body, Fred hated he knew the truth, that he was in bad shape, and wished that he could reassure her that he was atleast for the moment okay.

They arrived down by the riverbank just as a dense fog was rolling in, making for a very creepy atmosphere as they left the van and slowly started walking alongside the riverbank.

"Just a little further," Velma guided them, eye's on the screen showing the location of the tracker. Daphne's unconscious grip of Fred's hand that happened somewhere between leaving the van and reaching the edge of the bank, grew even tighter, as the fog drifted a little and their destination became a little clearer, even Velma's heart leapt in her mouth as they all glimpsed the very still bundled up figure on the bench. "Over there," she gestured quietly.

"No" Daphne whispered, her greatest fear seemingly coming true "no, no, NO!"

She broke into a run, shrugging off Fred's hand on her shoulder and plea to "Wait!"

Each step closer felt like she was wading in quicksand and the vision became much clearer, a still man, covered partially by a thick black blanket, the only feature she could make out was a shock of dark hair, everything was indiscernible, swathed by the heavy blanket, the only thing she kept coming back to in her mind, still, he is still, very still.

She knew the others were only a heartbeat behind her but as she reached the bundle, time seemed to stand still as she reached forward to peel back the cover, only dimly aware of the shouts of others in the background, a warning perhaps but she cared about nothing else in this moment. The figure was lying face up, she tugged back the heavy veil that concealed whatever was below, this was it, the moment of truth, she flung it away, taking one look at the face below, her scream pierced the still eerie morning.


	16. Mindgames and misery

The figure was most certainly alive, his eyes flying open and the slight gasp for breath was the very first thing that Daphne took in, following a close nano second behind was the realisation that this man though young was NOT Ethan. She didn't know why she had screamed, the startling moment it was clear the very still man was actually alive or the relief it wasn't Ethan, either way it seemed the man was as equally startled.

Fred watched in concern, as the man on the bench shot up, assessing very quickly that it was not Ethan, he grabbed Daphne's arm to pull her back a safe distance in case the man attacked but he didn't seem to want to hurt them. He had a scar on his left cheek and was dressed in a jumper with holes that could barely keep him warm he had on baggy sweatpants and battered Converse, it was obvious he was homeless.

Daphne was about to apologise for startling him and moving along on their way when Velma asserted "he has the phone."

The man sat up, assuming a defensive position against the young group when Daphne noticed the phone clutched in his hand, that had been hidden below the blanket. The youth stared back at the group, wondering what they wanted, only taking a closer look at the dark haired girl did he realise this was indeed perhaps who he was waiting for after all, the hair was different for sure, but her beauty was still apparent. Fumbling in the pocket for the photo the man had given him, he thrust it towards her. "Are you...her?"

They all gasped as he produced the photo, the same kind of smiling tabloid photo, Fred, Velma and Shaggy had researched Daphne, the rich daughter and her daddy at yet another high society function.

"Where did you get that?" Daphne whispered horrified.

"It is you isn't it? Wow he said you probably would have changed but I almost didn't recognise you! I never believed you would really come" he said babbling excitedly.

Fred thrust himself protectively in front of the girls as they realised this guy wasn't just a random coincidence, yet again Devon had found a way to play mind games. "Was that the man who gave you the picture?" Fred demanded, snatching the photo from the man's hands and jabbing his finger at Devon's smarmy face. Shaggy was already scanning around, fearing they were about to be ambushed any second. Scooby stood on alert, ready to protect his friends.

"Yes, he was kind, he gave me money, he told me you would probably come for this," he said indicating the phone, speaking only to Daphne.

Fred,all patience gone and knowing that right this second, he should have been at the garage, grabbed the guy by his jumper. "Tell us everything!" he snarled at the now frightened youth.

"Fred!" Daphne screamed, shook by this new violent side, even when he was her captor, she had never once been scared of him, she was now, the anger escaped from every pore as he gripped the kid tight. "Fred let him go! It's not his fault!"

"I'll tell you everything!" he said with wild eyes, "just please please don't hurt me!"

It became clear very quickly that this boy was just yet another innocent pawn but for a moment for Fred the red mist had very quickly descended, he had been ready to take all his anger and frustration out on him. He let go.

"What's your name?" Shaggy asked.

"Seb, last night that guy in the photo saw me sleeping rough and offered me money to take the phone, the picture and to give you this if you turned up, I really thought he was messing with me, but he gave me a hundred dollars, I couldn't turn that down so I did as he said."

Seb was speaking to the whole group now but Fred could no longer concentrate on what he was saying, not since he had said 'to give you this' and showed an identical fat manila envelope to the one he had found in the car, his heart plummeted to the floor, would it contain the same macabre photos that he had delivered?

Seb presented the envelope, which Daphne took in bewilderment and Velma reached for the phone, turning it on, extremely troubled by this turn of events. Planting the phone on Seb for them to find meant Devon knew the phone had a tracker and that they had the means and capability to trace it. For Velma that meant an upgrading of Devon from a dangerous criminal to a clever psychopath and that was deeply concerning. Daphne grasped the envelope, feeling the weight of a small object inside.

Seb watched the faces of the four teenagers assort from terrified to upset and felt awful that he had clearly played a part, the dark haired girl had virtually frozen in fear as he handed the envelope over. He had thought that perhaps he was doing this girl a favour giving her the phone and the envelope. He had been so happy last night when he got given the money, that was enough to feed him for a while.

"I'm sorry," he said wide-eyed "I did not mean to upset you," he said, disappointed his little turn of luck last night had gone so sour.

Still gripping the envelope but making no move to open it, Daphne acknowledged Seb. "It's okay," she said, reaching out a little to squeeze his shoulder, he looked so frightened, probably not much older than 16 and living in such poor conditions. She suspected Devon was done with Seb now he had served his purpose but she didn't want to take any chances. "Seb" she said gently "that man, in the photo? He is not a very nice man, he might...come back and I don't want you to be hurt."

"Is he your father?" Seb asked in a low whisper.

"Yes," nodded Daphne "he is, he hasn't hurt me but he has hurt people I care about."

"My father hurt me too" confided Seb sadly, "that's why I ran away."

Daphne's heart went out to the teen and she felt angry knowing her father had deliberately targeted the vulnerable young boy.

She dug in her purse for some bills, handing them to Seb. "It's not much but with the money he gave you and this it should get you a place in a hostel or something for a few nights, get yourself off the streets Seb, it isn't safe for you out here."

Seb clutched the bills to his chest as each of the others handed him some more cash. "Thank you," he said gratefully, so touched by their kindess "thank you so so much."

"Take care of yourself Seb," Daphne said genuinely as he scrambled to his feet, folding the bills up carefully and putting them into his trainers.

"I will, don't worry I will" he said, as he disappeared up the bank and into the fog beyond.

The four stood around contemplating what the hell had just happened, teeth chattering in the early morning cold.

"He knew" Daphne said quietly, "he's always one goddamn step ahead of us!" she added in frustration.

"But _how_ did he know?" Velma questioned "how could he possibly know there was a tracker in the phone and that we would use it to try trace Ethan?"

Daphne had slowly torn open the envelope and tipped out it's small contents onto the palm of her hand, "perhaps this may gave us the answers" she said eyeing the small plastic warily.

Fred gaped at the cell phone, his fears growing, before they even had time to consider their next move, the cell started to ring.

For a moment, time seemed to stand still, they all looked at each other in horror, before realising it wasn't the small black cell in Daphne's hand that was ringing but rather the sleek metal phone in Velma's, it was Ethan's. Velma stared as fearfully at it as if it was a bomb, there was no caller flashing up with the number, yet they all knew it wasn't likely to be a social call from one of Ethan's buddies.

It seemed to ring for an eternity as Fred ushered them all back inside the van, feeling horribly exposed when unable to stand the tension no longer, Daphne snatched the phone from Velma's grasp and hit answer.

"Hello" she said evenly, desperately trying to remain calm, in control

"Hello darling" came the jaunty reply "now how have you been?"

Daphne felt utterly sickened as she heard his voice, knowing everything he had done, what he planned to do and here he was trying to exchange pleasantries like a normal friendly parent chat.

"You disgust me" she seethed, "you couldn't find me so you took Ethan, you coward!"

"Oh Daphne, Daphne, Daphne" Devon lamented dramatically emphasising his daughter's name, "I never intended for it to come to this! he's just...unlucky" he laughed.

Daphne shook her head at his callousness, "where is he, what did you do to him?!"

She expected more evasiveness, more sickening banter but what Devon said, shook her to her very core, she almost dropped the phone, barely whispering as she stated firmly "I don't believe you."

Although she kept the phone off speaker it was apparent immediately to the others that it was indeed Devon on the other end of the line. Fred was sitting closest, his arm around her and though he couldn't hear every word, he could hear his sneering tone coming through loud and clear particularly that cold laughter again. She had been tense from the moment that they had got down to the riverbank and found Seb but as he rubbed her back gently he suddenly felt her go completely rigid, her eyes wide, her mouth slack in shock. For an awful moment he thought that Devon had told her that Ethan was dead but as she shifted around slowly to look at him, her eyes blazing with something, fear, anger, grief perhaps all three he knew that it was much much worse.


	17. What we conceal will tear us apart?

For Devon, after some niggling little disappointments, it was the signal to put the ball firmly back in his court. He had contingency plans of course he did but this was just so much more fun! Ethan had very graciously told him about the technical wizardry of one Velma Dinkley and a man of his stature also had some very clever people at his disposal. Checking Ethan's phone had been a priority so when the tracker was discovered, he got his technician to add something that would notify when phone was switched on, waited for the Dinkley girl to take the bait to track it down and set out to find a willing participant to 'look after' the phone. It hadn't taken long the city was full of down and out kids, arguments about trust funds no doubt and it hadn't taken long to persuade the kid to pass on his little gifts. He knew they would come, he had faith that they would come but it would mean his Plan A had gone somewhat out of the window. He couldn't deny his disappointment when his contact phoned to say that Jones hadn't shown at the garage, he had thought perhaps he really did have that ruthless streak he so admired, that he would betray the girl he had thought nothing of kidnapping just a few short days ago but then he saw that video in Ethan's apartment and knew that he had succumbed just like all the others in this god forsaken city, blinded by love. Fool.

Well, he had left him a little gift for when he eventually showed, he felt he was being generous he HAD warned the boy what would happen if he attempted to double-cross him, nobody double-crossed him but for now he couldn't resist causing a bit of friction, his daughter thought she could trust him and his criminal crew? Surely he was doing her a mere favour by exposing their true colours? Not to mention getting rid of that pesky little circle of allies she had aligned herself with. He gleefully lit the blue touch paper and sat back waiting for the eruption.

Even after Devon cheerfully repeated it, it still didn't sink in for Daphne, _this wasn't real. _ It played in her head over and over like a taunting refrain.

_"How is he? You mean your criminal boyfriend didn't share our conversation and the lovely photos I passed onto him? That IS a damn shame darling."_

She let the phone drop to the floor, the sudden abrupt noise making everyone jump. She attempted to compose herself, convince herself it was all lies but as she gently probed "Is it true?" she knew from one look at his face that despite the connection she felt had made with Freddy that she was in fact a fool to think he could actually care for her. He could barely look her in the eye and for that she could barely contain her fury.

"You knew?!" she challenged, her voice starting to quaver, "you let me go through all that down at the river and you KNEW all along he was alive!"

Fred knew he absolutely had no excuse for this, he knew he was being trapped from the moment those photos ended up in his possession. Whatever he came out with now, he knew was going to sound feeble, so he shot straight from the heart, with conviction "I was only trying to protect you."

"Protect me? You think by letting me think my cousin was dead was protecting me? That you SPOKE to Devon and didn't think to tell me? All that was protecting me?" Her voice had turned into a deep anger now.

Shaggy knew Fred had been put in an awful position and knew he had to stick up for his buddy.

"He didn't want you to see them Daphne, they were horrible, he..."

But Daphne cut him off, quickly rounding on poor Shaggy. "You saw them too?" she said, the disappointment evident that the betrayal went deeper than just Fred. "And you?" she said turning to Velma, hoping against hope she was wrong, having grown to like the sarky intelligent young woman but a shake of the head confirmed all she needed to know.

"I never felt comfortable with it, I told them you needed to know.."

"I don't believe it," Daphne said on the verge of tears now. "ALL of you? I should have known better, how could I ever hope to trust criminals? After what you did to me? I should have called the police the moment you were stupid enough to let me go."

Fred was desperate now, he could see they were going to lose her, "I wanted to help you, help him, I was going to help find him, it was my fault once again with the stupid in over my head plans, don't blame them, they were only trying to help, we all want to help, we still do, we still can...we just need to..."

"Show me," Daphne cut in abruptly catching Fred offguard.

"What? No Daphne it's not a good idea, it's not..."

"SHOW ME!" she virtually begged of him before adding "please"

With concern etched on everybody's faces, Fred reluctantly produced the envelope from his back pocket and handed it slowly to Daphne. "I'm sorry," he muttered quietly by word of warning.

Daphne methodically pulled the pictures out one by one, her face set in a line of grim horror, she said nothing but tears streamed down her cheek silently as the pictures became more and more gruesome until finally she could stand it no longer and ran for the door, barely making it onto the asphalt before the nausea came over her in waves.

Fred immediately reached out to support her but she jerked away violently wiping her mouth.

"No," she hissed. "Do NOT touch me, I can't even bear to look at you!" she cried, eyes stinging from the shock of the photos and the betrayal. It hurt so much, it hurt more than her heart could stand because she had let him in, she had foolishly let him into her heart, despite all the warning signs, despite every last nerve ending telling her to stay away. Her head swam with so many confused thoughts and she knew in that moment that he she had to go, had to get her head clear.

She pushed past Freddy to retrieve her bag from the van and stood facing them. "I have to go! I can't be here, I can't be with you.." she bit her lip hard to prevent the tears that threatened to come and as they all took a step forward, Fred pulled her towards him firmly, "I can't let you go, it's not safe," he told her his intention suddenly clear as he steered her back towards the van."It's for your own safety."

But Daphne had changed a lot in the short few days that they had first done this to her and she angrily pulled away from his grip, elbowing him hard in the ribs, "No! Not again!"

Fred collapsed, stunned, nursing the sudden pain in his chest and before they even had chance to react, she remembered the advantage she had not had over them last time that was now in her possession. Reaching in her bag for the gun, she regarded them.

" I HAVE to go, do not try to follow me," she declared firmly backing away, pointing the gun towards them, she had to get her head straight, it was all too much. Fred determinedly got to his feet and she felt her finger close on the trigger, "Don't Freddy," she said softly. "Don't..."

They locked eyes once more, there was so much hurt and pain in Daphne's eyes that Fred couldn't bear it. "I'm so sorry Daphne," he murmured as she looked away once more, sure they weren't going to follow and then Shaggy surprisingly piped up.

"Wait! Daphne please! Don't go alone," he pleaded. "I know we messed up spectacularly again and I understand why you don't want to be with us but please don't go alone. Take Scooby."

Daphne blinked in surprise at the offer and felt herself soften towards Shaggy once again, he was a good kid. She knew what he was doing, he was offering her some kind of protection (well the Great Dane sure LOOKED fearsome anyway) but more than that he knew he was offering her a olive branch, a way back in, he knew she would want to find a way to bring the dog back to him. She felt grateful to Shaggy and relented beckoning to the huge dog who came to her feet without hesitation. With Scooby Doo at her heels, she disappeared into the shadows.

Fred pounded on the van door in frustration, in that moment he had never despised anyone as much as he despised Devon Blake, it was clear to him now it had all been meticulously planned out that one by one he was removing those who protected her, first Ethan now the gang and it had worked handsomely with her now out there alone with just a gun and Shaggy's big dumb dog to protect her. He had successfully turned her against them and it killed Fred to know how easily he had slipped into his part, Devon was a puppet master of the highest order and he had orchestrated all the parts perfectly. He hit the door again and again and again until he didn't feel the pain anymore nor notice the blood running down his fingertips.

They allowed him to channel his aggression until it looked like he was about to go postal on the van when Shaggy swiftly intervened knowing they would need the van. "Are you done?" Velma asked also feeling deeply frustrated by Devon's game and Daphne's exit.

"Sure," Fred said, wiping his bloodied knuckles on his top. "I'm done."

"Excellent" she said sarcastically, "now, what the fuck are we going to do?"

For once Fred didn't have an answer, didn't know what he could possibly suggest seems as though every decision he made ended up slapping him in the face so spectacularly. He climbed back into the van feeling absolutely miserable while Velma and Shaggy sat outside. He was enjoying the silence until he heard the sound of very feint laughter, continuously, the kind of laughter where you cannot stop and with a start realised where it was coming from. He snatched up the cell that Daphne had dropped and clearly not ended the call because there he was GUFFAWING away, having very obviously heard the whole thing.

"Burn in hell!" Fred shouted, causing Devon to stop the laughter very abruptly. Instead he got a very slow hand clap come down the line that set his teeth on edge with every vibration . "Well done Fred Jones, she must REALLY like you to get that angry at your betrayal, even I didn't see her completely walking away, how very...unfortunate. Oh and nice job trying to kidnap her again..thought that was a really nice touch."

Fred could barely control his rage, he knew he had fucked up, he didn't need to be reminded of it. "You won't find her you know?" he taunted _not before we do anyway_ he thought hopefully.

"We'll see," Devon said sounding strangely uninterested, "I'd like to remind you what I said would happen about people who double-cross me, don't think I've forgotten, I shall tell you now it's in your interests to get to the garage as soon as possible."

More threats, more taunts, this man clearly didn't get tired of his own voice.

Fred however was beyond tired of it, "Goodbye Devon," he said pressing the end call button. Stepping outside the van, he walked up to the water's edge and pitched the phone as far into the river as he could, waiting for the satisfying splash.

"Dude!" Shaggy exclaimed "that's Ethan's phone!"

"Well I think he's got bigger concerns than his cell right now" Fred said darkly before adding some resolution, "I'll buy him a new one."

They got back into the van and Shaggy drove them home.

"That was a nice thing you did for Daph, giving Scooby like that, it can't have been an easy thing to do," Fred commented as they walked back into the apartment.

"I couldn't bear to think about her out there alone," Shaggy explained. "Sure Scoob isn't the bravest hound around but he's loyal and he'll keep her safe, I know he will."

"Even so we have to look for her," Velma said."Not straight away, we need to give her some space and time but before it gets dark, she can't be alone in the dark, not with Devon sure to be searching for her and with the situation as it is, imagine if someone recognises her, the shitstorm that would cause!"

They agreed to give her time but the whole argument was still preying on Fred's mind. "Guys? I think I'm going to go for a drive too, get my head straight? I promise I'm not going to look for her."

Fred still looked dazed and unhappy so Shaggy and Velma didn't question it, just let him go.

"We'll see you later then yeah?" Shaggy called as Fred got into his car.

"Yeah see you later" Fred called absent-mindedly, driving out the carpark.

Hours passed and Shaggy and Velma were alone in each other's company at the apartment, wanting to keep busy, Velma suggested going online and scoping out potential hideouts by the riverbank, and they drew up a list of potential buildings and the exits and entrances for them. Not that they planned to go in all guns blazing but it was helpful to know.

Not long after it had started to get dark, they were interrupted by a familiar whining at the door. _Scooby! _Shaggy raced to the door at breakneck speed in case she had planned to just drop him off and then do a runner but when he got to the door, there she was standing next to Scooby, gently stroking his head. There was no need for any words, she stepped forward and Shaggy automatically went to hug her, which she warmly returned. Followed by Velma and they all stepped inside.

Daphne peered around the apartment, looking for Fred. "He's not here?" she said disappointment evident in her voice .

"No," Velma stated, "he said he needed time too but that was hours ago, I assumed he had gone to look for you."

Shaggy grabbed his cell phone and dialled Fred's number, frowning in surprise when it went straight to voicemail, he always answered his phone. "Hey Fred, it's Shaggy, listen Daphne's back, she's fine so I guess you can uh come home now, if you're ready I mean, whatever, just give us a call back when you can, see you later buddy."

"He probably has loud music on or something in the car," Shaggy said, trying to reassure himself as much as anyone.

"I should never have shouted at him like that," Daphne said sadly. "Devon was toying with him, with us, I see that now."

"Daphne, you had every right to be angry at Fred, at us, he..._we_ should have told you right away about Ethan." Velma explained.

"What kind of mood was he in when he left?" Daphne asked suddenly, hoping to pick up on some clues as to his state of mind. "Did he seem OK or did he seem like he was going to go on an all out rampage?"

"He was _fine_," Velma stated firmly, not wanting to worry Daphne, but catching the skeptical look she gave her, she elaborated slightly. "He was a little er skittish but fine he said he just wanted a drive. Come, let me show you what Shag and I have been up to." She said leading the dark haired girl to the computer, hoping it would take her mind off Fred.

An hour later however and another failed phone call and Daphne was starting to get very stressed out. "Are you _sure_ he was OK Velma? He didn't seem like he was going to do anything stupid?"

"Daphne I told you he was just Fred, stubborn, pride wounded a bit, beating himself a bit maybe but he was still just Fred."

By 9pm he was still not back, and even Velma and Shaggy were getting anxious until at 9.14pm Shaggy's phone beeped to indicate he had a message, a message that would change everything. Wordlessly he read it, then read it again, the words swimming out against the screen, his brain refusing to comprehend. He felt tears spring to his eye and wiped at them furiously before the girls noticed, it didn't take long.

"Shaggy! What is it?" Daphne exclaimed. "Is it Fred?"

Shaggy merely nodded and handed the phone to the girls without a word, like he did, they read in silence at first without a reaction before Velma was the first to speak.

"That cowardly bastard," she uttered in disgust. Neither Shaggy nor Daphne could disagree but it didn't mean they had to believe it but there it was in black and white on the screen, just a few words but the ones that changed everything.

" NORVILLE I'M SORRY, I CAN'T DO THIS, I SCREW EVERYTHING UP, STOP CALLING ME AND PLEASE DON'T LOOK FOR ME I DON'T WANT TO BE FOUND. I HOPE YOU CAN FORGIVE ME IN TIME. "

And just like that Fred Jones was gone.


End file.
